Gold coin to encourage polio shots

Malappuram: Here is an irresistible offer to the children of Malappuram to get vaccinated. A lucky draw will be conducted among those who are administered  polio vaccine and the winner will be given a gold coin.  

Two panchayats in the district, Edarikode and Kaladi,  have introduced this scheme to overcome the resistance of the parents to immunise their  children.   

The first phase of this year’s vaccination drive began at 3,707 vaccination booths in the district on Sunday and the panchayats hope to woo the maximum number of children to the booth set up at the  Public Health Centre.

Junior Health Inspector U. Sajeesh said, “the  people prefer to wait for the health workers to come to their houses  to administer the vaccine. Through this scheme, we are aiming to bring  more people to the PHC polio booth,” he said.

The offer has been made in association with a local jewellery.  Other gifts, including sweets and balloons, were also distributed by local organisations to the children who reached the booth.
 

Malappuram: “Such schemes are part of the campaigns by local PHCs and the district health authorities have no role in it. Last year also, there were some programmes like this,” said  District Medical Officer Dr. Ummer Farook.

“In the previous  year,  the district had achieved 97 per cent of the targeted polio vaccination. But in the case of other immunisation drives,  we are facing hurdles in Malappuram due to religious orthodoxy,” he said.

Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar had pointed out a few months back that the number of kids taking vaccinations had decreased in Malappuram due to the  stand of religious organisations.

Taking a cue from this,  the government had started an extensive vaccination drive after the recent re-emergence of diphtheria in the district.