Polio Photo Essays: UNICEF India

These three websites present online slide presentations focussing on polio immunisation campaigns in India. The first, Eradicating Polio, shows meetings in both secular and religious settings, caps promoting the campaign, child-led processions, industrial locations for immunisation, transit teams working at railway stations, home visits, Imam-sponsored campaigns, and both female and male health mobilisers. According to the background information: "Eradicating Polio India currently has 185 cases out of which 136 belong to the P3 strain virus – Uttar Pradesh has 133 of these. Bihar does not have a single P3 case at the moment and the P1 monovalent vaccine continues to be used in the state."

The second, Polio campaign underway!, focusses on the Moradabad district of India, where 26 cases of polio were reported previous to this campaign. It shows public health vaccinators at work and a young mother giving her baby to a public health mobiliser to receive the immunisation drops at a public booth. Children who receive the immunisation drops are marked with indelible green ink on the left little finger so that health mobilisers know they have been immunised. According to background information: "60 cases have been reported so far this year. This photo essay captures images of Polio Sunday in Moradabad, western Uttar Pradesh."

The third series, Polio Immunisation Day - Ferozabad (Uttar Pradesh), is about the campaign in Ferozabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, delivering Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) at hospitals, schools, community centres, family homes, railway stations, bus stands, and ferry ghats (terminals) over the next few days. It shows two of 86 health mobilisers reviewing a written plan for running an immunisation booth. There are photos of workers hired to clean open sewers, removing, drying, and carting away sludge where the virus may fester. Health mobilisers found that a lack of a sanitation infrastructure was a frustration. The photos show health workers going house-to-house to bring children to their booths for the immunisation drops and the indelible ink on the left little finger, a sign of campaign success. According to background information: "This photo essay by [United Nations Children's Fund] UNICEF’s Michael Galway captures some of the women at work mobilising children to the polio booth in Ferozabad city, western Uttar Pradesh on Polio Sunday, February 26 2006."

Click on the titles below to view these photo presentations online.

Eradicating Polio

Polio campaign underway!

Polio Immunisation Day - Ferozabad (Uttar Pradesh)