Indian parents stay away from immunization campaign.(Brief Article)

2002 APR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Paramedics in an Indian state have gone door-to-door to give antipolio doses to children after parents stayed away from a United Nations immunization campaign, fearing side effects.

Officials said the World Health Organization's polio campaign in the northeastern state of Assam evoked a poor response.

"I did not feel like having my daughter administered the polio drop apprehending something untoward might happen to my only child," Dipen Medhi, a trader, told the Sentinel, a local English language daily.

Assam residents were gripped by similar fears during a UNICEF-sponsored antiblindness campaign last year to give vitamin A doses to children.

At least 16 children died and hundreds fell ill after they were administered doses of vitamin A in November 2001.

The Assam government halted the campaign, but later said the deaths were not caused by the doses. Samples of the vitamin A syrup were seized and tested in laboratories, but were found to have met standards.

The first phase of the polio campaign was conducted January 20, 2002 and the ...