Telangana’s Pulse Polio drive will target 18,01,698 children below five years across five districts on November 22, with health teams planning booth-based vaccination, house-to-house follow-up and special outreach to children living in mobile and underserved communities.
The campaign is part of the Sub-National Immunisation Day (SNID)-2026 and will cover Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Sangareddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Hanamkonda districts. Two drops of the bivalent oral polio vaccine will be administered at specially established booths, a health department official told Deccan Chronicle.
The department will establish 7,602 polio booths for the first phase of the campaign. Children who miss the booth-based drive will be identified and vaccinated through house-to-house visits on November 23 and 24. The campaign will continue on November 25 in Greater Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Sangareddy districts, according to the official.
The scale of the operation will require a large field workforce. The department plans to deploy 245 mobile teams and establish 245 transit points. The programme will be supervised by 761 route supervisors and supported by 1,709 auxiliary nurse midwives, 5,682 ASHA workers and 5,655 Anganwadi workers.
The campaign’s coverage plan specifically identifies children who may be missed by fixed-site vaccination. Health teams will focus on children of migrant labourers, nomadic communities and mendicants, as well as those living at brick kilns, construction sites, agricultural work locations, urban slums and newly developed colonies on city outskirts.
Children from fishing and tribal communities will also be included in the outreach. These locations often involve temporary, dispersed or changing populations, making household enumeration and follow-up an important part of the campaign beyond the scheduled booth day.
The health department will coordinate with women development and child welfare authorities, municipal administration, school education, panchayat raj, Metro Rail, railways, defence authorities and the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation. The stated objective is to support access, awareness and movement across residential areas, transport points and work sites so that children are not missed.
Health minister Damodar Rajanarsimha has directed officials to create widespread awareness about the campaign and appealed to parents to ensure that every child below five years receives the two vaccine drops. The immediate milestones are the November 22 booth drive, the house-to-house visits on November 23 and 24, and the continuation of the campaign on November 25 in the four districts specified by the department.
