Polio Eradication
SPEAKING at the function held on the eve of the Seventh
National Immunisation Day-2003, Health Minister Dr. Upendra Devkota, while administering
polio drops to the children, said that the challenge of eradicating polio still remains
and thanked all those at home and abroad who have extended their co-operation in this
task. It may be recalled that Nepal, with the objective of banishing polio from the
Kingdom by 2005 B.S, has not only been observing National Immunisation Day continuously
since 2053 B.S. but also administering polio drops to the nation's children below five
years of age by mobilising all its meagre resources and equally inadequate medical
personnel. The task, for a cash-crunched, resource-strapped nation like Nepal has indeed
been challenging. Further compounding this challenging task is the topographical
configuration which is singularly characterised by difficult terrain sans any reliable
transport and communication networks. This has hampered in the easy movement of medical
personnel to administer the polio drops to children living in remote regions as well as in
transporting the much-needed polio drops to the designated polio drop administering
centres dispersed throughout the nation. Notwithstanding all this, what is indeed
heartening to note is that the government, more particularly the concerned health
authorities, have been able to notch up some remarkable successes since the laudable
programme kicked off in 2053 B.S.
However, the successes gained so far in administering the
polio drops to the vast majority of the children should not lull the concerned health
authorities into become complacent. Rather, they should be ever vigilant. The simple
reason being that if polio is a deadly communicable disease, then its virus is noted to be
very resilient. It is for this very reason that polio drops have to be administered over a
number of times before the children can be declared to be truly immunised from this deadly
malady. But then, the concerned health authorities always have the experiences gained so
far to assist them in their praiseworthy task. While they are at it, what goes without
saying is that they should, like in the past, endeavour their mite to administer polio
drops to as many children as possible. Similarly, after the designated immunisation day is
over, they not only need to make the people in their areas aware as to the forthcoming
immunisation day but also alert all the people concerning the ongoing polio drop
administering programme.
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