Guwahati, May 4: The Unicef today admitted that the botched pulse polio and Vitamin A campaigns in 2001 have severely affected its immunisation programme in Assam as worried parents stayed away from the vaccination booths out of fear for their wards? wellbeing.

Several children had died after being administered Vitamin A drops and a large number of children were taken ill after a pulse polio campaign that year, evoking widespread resentment against the UN body. Allegations of a fake NGO being involved in the campaigns, too, had raised doubts over the Unicef?s methods of operations.

During a workshop on pulse polio immunisation programme here today, Unicef project officials said concern over vaccine safety was one of the reasons for the ?much below desired level? status of the polio eradication programme in Assam.

Project officer of Unicef?s West Bengal and Assam units, Pankaj Mehta, while interacting with the media after the workshop, admitted that the fiasco indeed affected the drive.

For obvious reasons, he, however, downplayed the affect saying it was only to a certain extent.

But figures provided by the Unicef showed that there has been a sharp decline in the rate of coverage in the state since 2002. Mehta said the state had been doing exceedingly well in the 80s and 90s as far as polio coverage was concerned, but it dipped after 2001. The last case of polio was reported in the state in March 2003, which recurred after a gap of two years.

Difficult conditions like floods, weak health infrastructure, remote areas and insurgency were some other reasons attributed to the inadequate coverage.

Mehta stressed the need to improve the quality of vaccination service to improve the scenario and pointed out several steps being taken in this regard. Training was being provided to those involved in the programme to improve the quality of service. The vaccine quality has been improved with provisions for ?auto disable? syringes being created to improve injection safety. Apart from these, monitoring and supervision support has also been put in place.

The Unicef officials said it was crucial for its fight against polio that every child in the state receives the oral polio vaccine (OPV) drops on May 15 and during subsequent house-to-house rounds.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, a region could be declared officially free from polio if no case was recorded for three consecutive years. The year 2005 is Assam?s third year without polio and if it stays so, in 2006 Assam would be declared a polio-free region.

?Experts believe that the transmission of the wild polio virus can be stopped this year if parents come out and get their children immunised on May 15,? a Unicef official said.