A child being administered polio drops in Hyderabad on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: RAMAKRISHNA G.
Hyderabad District Collector Hari Chandana Dasari administered polio vaccine to children, kicking off the pulse polio campaign in the city on Sunday at Housing Board Colony in Bagh Lingampally and the Urban Primary Health Centre (UPHC) in Tilak Nagar.
“Sufficient awareness has been generated in and around the UPHC by our staff to encourage as many parents as possible to bring their children for vaccination,” said Deepthi, Medical Officer at the UPHC.
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has identified 290 districts across India for this special drive from October 12 to 15. In Telangana, the campaign is being conducted across six districts: Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Medchal Malkajgiri, Sangareddy, Hanamkonda and Warangal. The Health department estimates that approximately 17.32 lakh children under the age of five live in these districts.
Of those, 16.35 lakh children received the oral vaccine on the first day, achieving a coverage of 94.4%. The house-to-house Pulse Polio campaign will continue for the next two days to ensure that every child is vaccinated, said Sangeetha Satyanarayana, Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare.
In Hyderabad district, the campaign targets 5.17 lakh children under the age of five, covering 9.36 lakh households through 2,636 vaccination booths. Nearly 10,635 personnel, including doctors, nurses and ASHA workers, have been deployed to ensure smooth execution of the drive. Additionally, 50 transit points have been set up at key locations such as Secunderabad, Nampally and Kacheguda railway stations, Ameerpet Metro station, and the MGBS and JBS bus stands. These centres will operate round the clock till midnight of October 14.
“We have identified 164 high-risk areas across the district, including construction sites, urban slums, underserved localities and nomadic settlements. Teams have been deployed to ensure every eligible child is covered,” said Hyderabad District Medical and Health Officer J. Venkati.
Telangana last reported a case in Nalgonda district in 2007, while Hyderabad’s last instance dates back to 1998. Since 2016, the city has transitioned from the trivalent oral polio vaccine (tOPV) to the bivalent version (bOPV) and also introduced the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), Ms. Hari Chandana said.
Published – October 12, 2025 07:00 pm IST
