Kathmandu, January 8:

The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) is planning to organise a Sub-national Immunisation Day by administrating polio drops to children in 15 more districts on January 21 and January 22 after a couple of cases of polio were detected in the Terai adjoining the Indian border.

Dr Shyam Raj Upreti, chief of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) section, Child Health Division, said that the programme was being implemented under the World Health Organisation’s new directive of providing polio drops to two million children in high-risk areas after the detection of polio in the region.

The targeted 15 districts include districts of the Terai, ranging from Jhapa to Chitwan. “There are plans to expand the programme to urban areas such as Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur where the immigration rate is very high,” said Dr Upreti.

The first case of polio was detected in 2004 in the Terai. Two cases of polio were detected in Sarlahi in October 2005 and one case in Rautahat in November 2005.

“Until and unless polio is eradicated in India, ther is little chance of obliterating polio in Nepal’s border areas,” said Dr Sun Lal Thapa, programme manager at Integrated Management on Childhood Illness (IMCI), CHD.

“The Health Ministry has planned to provide the drops to all below the age of five years in a total of 24 districts, but due to shortage of vaccine programmes for six districts, including Kanchanpur have had to be deferred,” said Dr Upreti.

The Health Ministry has completed three rounds of oral polio administration in five districts — Sarlahi, Mahottari, Rautahat, Makwanpur and Sinduli — as a mop up programme after a case of polio was recently detected in Sarlahi. According to the World Health Organisation, house-to-house vaccination targeting children aged below five years has to be administered in the polio prone areas and contiguous high risk areas within 15 days of detection of cases.