One of the components of the effort to eradicate poliomyelitis by the turn of the century was (and still, as of this writing, is) "National Immunisation Days" (NIDs), which are designed to help increase and maintain overall immunisation coverage archived through normal operations of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI). Despite reported national success of EPI in Bangladesh, studies there indicated that, in slum areas, immunisation coverage was (at that time) significantly lower than in urban areas, and also lower than in rural parts of the country. It was for this reason that Bangladesh launched its first NIDs in 1995 - on March 16 and April 16. The goal was to administer 2 doses of the oral polio vaccine (OPV) to all children under the age of 5 years, irrespective of their previous immunisation status. Among the vehicles used to spread the word about the campaign were radio, television, mobile loudspeakers, printed materials (newspapers, posters, and leaflets), community meetings, and house-to-house contact (female field workers and volunteers promoted the NIDs during visits to women's houses).

Evaluators carried out pre- and post-NID cross-sectional surveys in a sample of one area of Dhaka city which included slum and non-slum households. In total, trained female interviewers collected NID-related information from 525 mothers (201 of whom lived in slums, and 324 who did not live in slums) and 720 children. Trained interviewers also collected data from 28 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and 23 government managers.

After NID2 (April 16), 81% of all women interviewed spontaneously mentioned that polio is a vaccine-preventable disease, increasing from 63% before NID1. The increase was more pronounced among slum dwellers, where the awareness rose to 74% (having been 52% before the first NID). By the end of the campaign, there was "a significant and substantial increase in knowledge about the method of administration of OPV for both groups, with a significant difference in increase among slum mothers, as compared to non-slum mothers."

88% of children under 5 years received at least one dose of OPV during the NIDs; 67% received 2 stipulated doses, with no significant differences between slum (65%) and non-slum (69%) groups. In addition, 68% of the children contacted during the NIDs were given vitamin A supplementation. In addition, the nutritional surveillance reports indicate a dramatic improvement in vitamin A coverage from 42% to 87% of the children living in the rural areas serving as sentinel sites (NID efforts were combined with other services - a strategy that was found to be very effective).

"Research Report: Impact of National Immunization Days on Polio-related Knowledge and Practice of Urban Women in Bangladesh", by MD. Abdul Quaiyum, Cristobal Tunon, Abndullah Hel Baqui, Zahidul Quayyum, and Jahanara Khatun, Health Policy and Planning, 1997 Dec; 12(4): 363-71.