Karnataka's pulse polio programme saw 27 lakh children being immunised during November 9 to 11 despite an acute shortfall of auxiliary nursing maids (ANMs). The immunisation programme was held in 12 districts of the state. The programme got largely affected because of poor manpower in the wake of the state government's freeze in recruitment on nurses. The immunisation is a part of the sub-national immunisation programme.

The state has seen a resurrection of polio in the last five months with 29 cases being reported till October end. The districts which organised the polio immunisation programme include Bellary, Raichur, Gulbarga, Koppal, Bagalkot, Haveri, Gadag, Davengere and Chitradurga These areas known for severe drought, poor living conditions, high level of poverty and illiteracy that attribute to the failure of children being immunised.

Dr RK Kumarswamy, project director Reproductive Child Health (RCH), Karnataka directorate of health and family welfare said, polio cases have been reported in the northern districts of the state like Bellary, Koppal, Gulbarga and Raichur. Bellary has reported the highest number of cases with 18 children suffering from the dreaded disease. Koppal and Gulbarga have reported three cases each and Raichur five cases.

Although there had been a report of a stray case in Raichur in November 2000 of a migrant labour child from Bihar, the state did not report a single case in 2001 and 2002 owing to the effective immunisation drive. The shortage of nurses has been a major problem across all government hospitals and primary health centres and the healthcare facilities have to cope with the situation, said officials from the health department.

In mid-2003, there was a report of polio case that has placed the state in the third place in terms of high incidence of polio after Uttar Pradesh (64 cases till October 2003) and Andhra Pradesh (30 cases till October 2003).

According to the health department officials, the lack of routine immunisation during the national immunisation programme days in north Karnataka districts led to an increase in the number of cases there. Although there was adequate coverage during the polio campaign yet around 30 per cent of the children had not been covered in those districts. The coverage was adequate in the southern parts of the state, which has not yet reported single case of polio.