IMA against introduction of polio injections

Patna -- The Indian Medical Association (IMA) will oppose the government's plan to replace pulse polio immunisation drops with injections.

"The IMA will oppose the move to administer injections instead of drops for polio pulse immunisation," IMA's outgoing national president Sanjeev Malik said.

Malik was here to attend the first IMA national conference that began Wednesday and to hand over charge to Ajay Kumar.

According to Malik, the government's proposal is based on the feedback that a section of people have refused to administer drops to their children due to various fears.

"The current immunisation drive has been able to reduce the number of polio cases significantly and there is no need to introduce injections," he said.

He said India has the largest number of polio cases with Uttar Pradesh and Bihar accounting for most of the newly detected cases this year.

India spends over Rs.10 billion on polio eradication programme annually.

Before 1988, when the World Health Organisation (WHO) launched a global anti-polio campaign, there were more than 350,000 cases worldwide.

At present the disease has been eradicated in much of the world but is still found in some countries including India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Malik said India would hold the next SAARC Medical Association summit in 2007 and the World Medical Association International Conference in 2009.