National Immunisation Day part of a special immunisation programme on polio eradication. Polio is primarily a disease of the infant caused by an enterovirus with disease manifestations that include destruction of motor neurons in the spinal cord causing flaccid paralysis. Because of enteric entry of the virus, it was thought that an oral vaccine may be effective in stimulating immunity against the disease. Indeed, oral vaccines consisting of attenuated virus have proved to be highly effective in conferring protective immunity. The trivalent polio vaccine consisting of three poliovirus types currently in use is a very convenient preparation that can be kept at 4°C for a long time and is thus suitable for field use in simple iceboxes.
On January 3rd Bangladesh more than 21 million under-five year old children of the country were vaccinated and one Vitamin A capsule was given to each of them on the day. Team 79 joined with Bright Bangladesh Forum (BBF) helped with the cause. We were distributed throughout the city and although in some offices demand for hands was low, others were rushed off their feet and struggled to clasp the grubby faces long enough to drop the two drops of vaccine into as many mouths as we could.
Bangladesh credits itself on the absense of polio cases for at least 7 years but the debilitating disease is still prevalent in neighbouring India and is an essential vaccination and as ever, we were simply glad to help in whatever little way we could.
