The first round of the 15th National Immunisation Day (NID) begins across the country today with an aim to give polio vaccines to 2.4 crore children under five years of age.

All 1,40,000 immunisation centres across the country will remain open from 8:00am to 4:00pm and the children who have already had their polio vaccines are to have the vaccine again.

A total of 7,00,000 volunteers, including fieldworkers of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, teachers of schools and madrasas, members of Ansar, VDP and workers of NGOs, would give

the vaccines to the children.

Temporary immunisation centres at bus terminals, railway stations, airports, land ports, launch terminals, and tollbooths of bridges would also be used for vaccinating children so that no infant is left out.

The second round of the 15th NID will be held on April 8.

During the second round, children from the age of one to five years would be given a highly-potent vitamin A capsule and two- to five-year-olds would be given an anti-worm tablet along with the polio vaccine.

Bangladesh witnessed the reappearance of polio after the disease disappeared from the country for five years. In 2006, 17 polio patients were discovered across the country, four of them were in Banshkhali in Chittagong alone.