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Millions of Indian Children Administered Polio Vaccine

Posted on: Monday, 26 September 2005, 09:01 CDT

Millions of Indian children administered polio vaccine

NEW DELHI, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Millions of children across India were administered anti-polio drops on Sunday in the continuation of the drive to eradicate the disease from the country.

The main focus of this round of the immunization program was to wipe out the disease from Uttar Pradesh, which had reported 12 new cases of polio till July end.

So far this year, 30 cases of polio have been reported in India with a majority of them from Uttar Pradesh, followed by Bihar and Delhi.

In India, there were 1,600 polio cases in 2002, 225 in 2003 and 136 in 2004. Among the 44 polio-infected districts in the country, Siwan in Bihar is the most affected.

Besides regular health centers, immunization camps were organized at bus stands, railway stations, religious centers and other public platforms to reach out to the largest number of people.

"In the national capital, drops were administered to more than two million children below the age of five," Indo-Asian News Service quoted a Health Ministry official as saying.

India is one of the six polio-endemic countries in the world, the other five being Nigeria, Pakistan, Niger, Afghanistan and Egypt.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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