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Polio survivor vaccinates 5,000 children over 20 years
Rupa Sahu, a polio survivor from Raipur, has spent 20 years going door to door to vaccinate children against polio, protecting over 5,000 children from the disease that left her disabled. Her…
Rupa Sahu, a polio survivor from Raipur, has spent 20 years going door to door to vaccinate children against polio, protecting over 5,000 children from the disease that left her disabled. Her mission continues as part of India's ongoing pulse polio immunisation drives.
Sahu's efforts highlight the work of thousands of frontline health workers who have made India polio-free since 2014. The World Health Organization certified the country free of wild poliovirus in that year after years of sustained vaccination campaigns.
India's next national polio immunisation day is scheduled for March 2026 under the Universal Immunisation Programme. Sahu's dedication exemplifies the grassroots networks that maintain vaccine coverage in remote and underserved areas.
Indian Opinion Analysis
India's polio eradication campaign is among the world's largest public health efforts, involving millions of frontline workers who conduct door-to-door vaccination drives in remote and conflict-prone districts. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative targets three serotypes of wild poliovirus, type 2 was declared eradicated in 2015, but vaccination against it continued for years to maintain population immunity. Chhattisgarh, where Rupa Sahu works, recorded its last polio case in 2010 and has since maintained high routine immunisation coverage through pulse polio campaigns. The next national immunisation day is scheduled for March 2026 under the Universal Immunisation Programme, which aims to reach all children under five years with both polio and measles-rubella vaccines.
Source: rediff.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
