#134 SNID

2 drops

marking the pinkie

A quick snuggle

Bivalent oPV

Health care working with vaccine in cooler

Tally sheet, 

reviewing the day's success

We left at 5:00 in the morning for the six plus hour drive to Murshidabad, the village we would take part in the sub-national Immunization Day.  Originally the 6^th of February was intended to be the National Immunization Day for the entire country, but a lack of vaccine pushed the NID to Feb 27^th.  So today was a SNID, with this one village having the vaccinations. The regular vaccinators usually start at 8:00am and finish by noon.  As we only arrived at noon, they held back vaccination some of the children so that the members of the team would have the opportunity to administer the doses.

This year we were giving the bivalent oral, where last year we delivered both the P1 and P3 monovalent, the bivalent is showing to be more effective in preventing Polio.

The group was very excited to give the drops to the children so Nancy and I stood in the background so that the others could have the opportunity to give the drops.  The health workers had already given many of the  children drops, so the two groups dispersed, Nancy and I stayed back chatting with Jenny and Sandy Harter.  She showed us how to tell if the child was younger than five years old; by having them place their arm over their head and if their fingers can reach their ear then they are older than five, but she also added, when in doubt…vaccinate.  A couple of mothers brought their children up as we walked with Jenny, so we had the opportunity to give the drops.  Shortly thereafter we met up with one of the groups and Jenny then lead them to an area where the children were.  Once again Nancy and I stayed back and were waiting for the others to return when we were called over to a vehicle, this time Johanne Ramsey was with us, we piled into the car and were taken to the edge of the village on the river.  We saw about ten more children ready to be vaccinated.  We finally caught up to the group and found one member had not given any drops so we traveled down the street in search of a child.  We found a child not vaccinated and he then was able to have the opportunity to make the difference for that one child. A couple of individuals only gave the drops to one child; it was solely dependent on the area the group traveled to.  But they now have the image of “their child” that they helped save from the crippling affects of Polio.  As one of the members of last year’s team said…”It doesn’t matter who gives the drops, as long as the child gets them.” 
The following is taken from the Feb 2, 2011 The Telegraph, a reporting agency in Calcutta.

District officials said the pulse polio vaccination programme had not been successful in the affected areas. They said the areas in Murshidabad from where polio cases were reported were all Muslim-dominated. Muslims comprise 63 per cent of the district’s population.

“The poor and unlettered villagers (in the affected areas of Murshidabad) are superstitious about the polio vaccine. Also, the villagers frequently boycott the pulse polio programme to protest the lack of development. I want to request the villagers not to deprive their children of the polio vaccine,” Siddiqui said.

Keith Feldon, a representative of the World Health Organization, and Jenny Horton, a consultant from the National Polio Surveillance Project, are touring the affected areas of Murshidabad and trying to create awareness about the vaccination programme. They have also asked district officials to intensify the vaccination drive.

“We are touring the affected areas and trying to know the reasons why parents are not having their children vaccinated,” Horton said. She said the district administration’s drive to create awareness was “satisfactory”.

The Murshidabad administration has decided to hold a vaccination drive between February 5 and 7. “We will organise camps across the district on February 5. On February 6 and 7, health workers will go from door to door to administer the vaccine,” a health official said.