MUMBAI: As the country stands just seven days away from being certified a polio-free nation, Mumbai will be achieving its own little milestone.
It will be nearing six years of defeating the poliomyelitis virus despite being a city with a high migration rate.
Asif Nagouri from Govandi was the last child to be diagnosed with the virus in March 2008. TOI recently visited his house and found out that the ailment had forced the Rajasthan natives to return to their village in Nagaur district. Asif's father Mohammed Sikander now lives here alone and works as a manager in a tea stall on Senapati Bapat Marg in Elphinstone Road.
Asif (now aged six) goes to a government school but is not as agile as other children of his age. "His ailment scared us. I shifted my family back to the village fearing that my other kids may also contract some serious infection. The quality of life in Govandi is unimaginably inhuman. Polio robbed us of our dreams of accomplishing something big in Mumbai," laments the father of four. He claims the state government did nothing to help the child recover and every penny of Asif's medical expense had to be borne by him. "I spent nearly a lakh, which was my life's savings, on his treatment in a private hospital in Kurla," said Sikander. He recollects getting his son's physiotherapy done at civic-run Sion Hospital for free though. "Asif is leading a normal life now but we have to be very careful with him. He walks with a perceptible limp and is not strong like his siblings," he says.
But Asif's polio never deterred him from getting his other children immunized. "Yes, it is true that my son got polio despite taking all the doses on time. But that only made me more aware and cautious towards my other children," he says. "In my tryst with polio, I have learnt that immunization is the key to beat the virus," he says.
A cent percent immunization rate still eludes India. "It is around 61% now. The Centre is now pushing all state governments to improve the immunization reach," said Dr Ravindra Banpel, regional team leader (west) for the World Health Organization. Mumbai has been faring better than the national average reaching out to 80-90% of the target population.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai
It will be nearing six years of defeating the poliomyelitis virus despite being a city with a high migration rate.
Asif Nagouri from Govandi was the last child to be diagnosed with the virus in March 2008. TOI recently visited his house and found out that the ailment had forced the Rajasthan natives to return to their village in Nagaur district. Asif's father Mohammed Sikander now lives here alone and works as a manager in a tea stall on Senapati Bapat Marg in Elphinstone Road.
Asif (now aged six) goes to a government school but is not as agile as other children of his age. "His ailment scared us. I shifted my family back to the village fearing that my other kids may also contract some serious infection. The quality of life in Govandi is unimaginably inhuman. Polio robbed us of our dreams of accomplishing something big in Mumbai," laments the father of four. He claims the state government did nothing to help the child recover and every penny of Asif's medical expense had to be borne by him. "I spent nearly a lakh, which was my life's savings, on his treatment in a private hospital in Kurla," said Sikander. He recollects getting his son's physiotherapy done at civic-run Sion Hospital for free though. "Asif is leading a normal life now but we have to be very careful with him. He walks with a perceptible limp and is not strong like his siblings," he says.
But Asif's polio never deterred him from getting his other children immunized. "Yes, it is true that my son got polio despite taking all the doses on time. But that only made me more aware and cautious towards my other children," he says. "In my tryst with polio, I have learnt that immunization is the key to beat the virus," he says.
A cent percent immunization rate still eludes India. "It is around 61% now. The Centre is now pushing all state governments to improve the immunization reach," said Dr Ravindra Banpel, regional team leader (west) for the World Health Organization. Mumbai has been faring better than the national average reaching out to 80-90% of the target population.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai
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