CHENNAI: Health minister Ma Subramanian inaugurated the pulse polio immunisation programme by administering polio drops to children below five years in Saidapet on Sunday.

He said that the pulse polio programme aims to vaccinate a total of 57,84,000 children below the age of 5 years in a single day. A total of 43,051 booths were set up by the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine across the State and two lakh employees have been deployed for the same. The children who miss the vaccine on Sunday, will be vaccinated on Monday, as part of the door to door campaign.

The minister also stated that there are various vaccination programmes under the Universal Immunisation Programme being undertaken for flu, pneumonia, jaundice, polio, tuberculosis, Rota virus and brain fever. As many as 10 lakh pregnant women and 9.16 lakh children are vaccinated against several diseases every year in Tamil Nadu. A total of 4 crore children have benefited from the vaccination in the State, so far.