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.”
