Deccan Chronicle 12.01.2010
Rural areas fare better than city
Jan. 11: If the government is to be believed, fewer children have so far been vaccinated against polio in both the city and its surroundings than in the other parts of the state in its ongoing campaign against the disease. The official figures say only 83.89 per cent of the children were vaccinated in Bengaluru urban, and 84.23 per cent in Bengaluru rural, as against around 95 per cent in other districts on the first day of the polio immunisation drive.
Doctors in the city, however, prefer not to take these figures at face value, arguing they may not reflect the large number of children vaccinated in private hospitals and clinics here. “There is a greater dependence on private healthcare in the city as people are not very sure about the quality of the vaccine in government hospitals,” says Dr Kishore Kumar, consultant neonatologist, arguing that the official figures cannot be right due to high level of awareness among people in the city.
Government officers admit that dependence on the private sector has been a problem in the city. “Urban areas have been a little tough to deal with. Even so, the 83 per cent recorded here is not bad,” says Dr M.R. Mohanraju, project director, reproductive and child health.
