Polio vaccine drive; one young mom's story

By Vyjayanthi Sriram

On Sunday, the health post on C.P. Ramaswamy road, Alwarpet witnessed a steady stream of parents carrying toddlers. 

The state-wide polio campaign vaccinated thousands of children aged from 0 to 5 years, protecting them against the deadly disease. 

The drops were administered in public health centers and mobile health posts. This health post had a list of 80 children to be vaccinated, out of which about 50 had turned up before noon.

Holding her 4-year-old son by the hand and carrying her one-year-old daughter, V. Vetrichelvi walked into the health post in the sweltering sun. The health worker and the young mother coaxed the children to swallow the medicine.

Said this young mother, “I am aware of this vaccine's availability and my son has been given the vaccine 3 times in 3 years and this is the first polio vaccine for my daughter.”

This young mother has memory of an unfortunate victim of this disease. Hailing from Dharmapuri district she has been vaccinated in her childhood in the local camp there. ” Children from two villages around would be vaccinated at the local health center in Dharmapuri," she said.

"My two friends who had not taken this vaccine regularly had become victims. When they were in Std. 7 both developed flu and later were afflicted with polio. One died a few years later while the other is bound to his wheelchair for life. I will never want the same for my kids.”