Members of a family in Mominpara who did not respond to the pulse polio programme. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, Nov. 10: The pulse polio programme is over but what health authorities of Malda cannot figure out is where they fell short of the target.

The reason is the district does not even possess a list of the children who should be administered the vaccine. The result is a large number of children remain vulnerable to the crippling disease even as the health authorities claim the success of the pulse polio programme was 70 per cent.

“The number of children to be immunised in each district comes from Calcutta after the health department goes through the population statistics. We only try and achieve the target,” said acting chief medical officer of health Gopal Sarkar.

This time the target figure was 5,39,409.

The medical chief, however, admitted that the department had failed to prepare a house-to-house register of couples with children who are eligible to participate in the programme.

“Due to this we are not being able to pin-point the areas where we fell short of the target,” Sarkar said.

Another reason for the absence of these vital records at the health sub-centres is a shortage of staff. Each health centre in the district is supposed to have a male and female health worker. These health workers make regular visits to the villages and conduct relevant surveys.

Malda faced a shortage of 250 men and 50 women health workers this time.

In the absence of proper data, no clear picture emerges on the status of either immunisation or the incidence of polio.

There were several places where a handful turned up at the immunisation camp. In such a case, health workers visit the families who did not attend the camp and administer the dose to the children.

But there is little the district health department can do here without the records on immunisation.

A case in point is Mominpara village in Kaliachak police station area where the response to the pulse polio camp was minimal. There are eight confirmed polio cases here.

The village has 331 children eligible for immunisation but till late afternoon only 41 children turned up with their parents.

“During the last campaign, we could administer the vaccine to 251 of the 331 children. Even after visiting individual houses we could not achieve the full target,” said health worker Anita Das.

A lack of awareness campaign is evident in these remote pockets as villagers raise doubts about the efficacy of the vaccine.