Tripura: Several Thousand Bangladeshis Entering through Check Point Receive Polio Immunization from Indian Govt

Agartala, March 2, 2020:

Thousands of immigrants entering Tripura using Akhaura ICP have been immunized so far through a special polio eradication drive launched by National Health Mission, Tripura state.

After the state had been declared totally free of Polio in 2011-12, the state decided put up immunization set ups in the international entry points of the state.

An Inside Northeast source said that this initiative is being taken to ensure that the immigrants are disease-free when they come to India. "They are coming from Bangladesh after going through the legal procedure. These people come to Tripura via the land portm and the Government is immunizing them."

According an official report shared by Chief Medical Officer West Tripura district more than 2000 children entering India through Akhuara Integrated Check post had been immunized in the last two years.

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“The drive has been initiated long back as a part of the Polio eradication drive. There are three specific stages of dealing with a disease. After achieving the polio free stage we intensified our drive to an extent that reached the elimination stage by few subsequent years. And, now we are running the Polio programme in eradication mode” Chief Medical Officer West Tripura district Dr. Debasish Das said.

As far as the Akhaura Integrated Check Post is concerned, a permanent polio booth has been set up there in 2010-11 and after that this regularly the children coming from the other part of the fencing are being given doses of polio, he said.

In the year 2018-19, altogether 1209 children were given pulse polio drops and in the current year the number till January stood at 1096. Though, the authorities failed to furnish any data of the previous years, officials said that every year more than one thousand children were given pulse polio all throughout.

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State In-charge of Pulse Polio Immunozation programme, Dr. Madhusudhan Chowdhury said that not only in Akhaura each and every entry point from Bangladesh has such a facility. And, people are eagerly taking part in this noble move.

Sources in the health and family welfare department said, since last few years no Polio case has been detected in Tripura after a case in Dharmanagar in 2010-11. Now, special preemptive measures are being undertaken so that threat of polio can be eradicated completely. Though, India is a polio free country, there are countries like Afganistan and Nigeria who enter Tripura using the Bangladesh route and those countries are still considered to be Polio infested, the sources informed this reporter.

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