Search the Internet          Tips

Children's illness not due to polio
drops: Assam

Seven children were admitted to hospital five days after being administered pulse polio drops, while 64 others were taken ill in Assam's Sonitpur district, even as authorities denied media reports that the illness was related to the vaccination programme undertaken in the state on January 20.

Joint Director of Health, Sonitpur, Dr Dhruba Hojai on Sunday said seven children were admitted to the Dhekiajuli hospital on January 25, but five of them were later released while two were still under treatment.

Hojai denied that these and 64 other children were taken ill after being administered polio drops under the pulse polio immunisation programme.

Hojai claimed the illness of the children was not connected with the programme, as they were suffering from diahorroea, fever and dehydration when the dose was administered.

He admitted that the health workers were only instructed to administer the doses and were in no position to check whether any child was suffering from any disease.

The pulse polio programme had received a setback in the state after 23 children died in November after being administered the dose, with the state human rights commission holding the Assam government and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund.

Tell us what you think of this report