Kathmandu, October 7:

The Child Health Division (CHD) under the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) today started the two-day oral polio vaccination campaign in five districts as a mop up programme after a polio case was detected in Sarlahi district, recently. Nepal had eradicated polio in 2000.

The mop up camp comes in line with the World Health Organisation standards which necessitates a house-to-house vaccination campaign targeting children aged less than five years in in areas and its surrounding which are at high risk for poliovirus transmissions within 15 days of the first detected case. “The programme is carried out under the CHD guidelines by the district health officers and the local health workers under the direct supervision of the community health workers,” said Dr Sun Lal Thapa, programme manager at Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) unit of Child Health Division. The government has started the Mop Up Programme in Sarlahi and its surrounding districts including Mahottarai, Sindhuli, Udaypur and Rautahat.

Dr Thapa said it is very difficult to eradicate polio in our country due to the geographic proximity to an endemic country. All countries are at risk due to close links with one of the remaining endemic countries. “Unless polio is eradicated in India it is very difficult to get rid of the disease in our country,” said Dr Thapa. “The reason for occurrence of polio case could be that the oral polio vaccine was not maintained in a proper temperature or it could also be that the body might have low resistant immunity power to the vaccination,” said Dr Thapa.

“We are hopeful that this mop up programme will check the re-occurrence of polio,” said Dr Thapa.