An anti-polio campaign of varied duration will begin in Sindh and Balochistan from Monday.
In Sindh, 9.4 million children up to five years old will be administered anti-polio vaccine during a week-long drive.
The Sindh Task Force on Polio Eradication reviewed the arrangements of the campaign in a meeting held with the provincial health minister Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho in the chair in Karachi. It was informed in the meeting that training of 74,435 polio workers across the province has been completed.
Addressing the meeting Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho said the significant reduction in poliovirus cases in the country is a great achievement.
Similarly, around 2.5 million children up to five years of age would be administered anti-polio drops in 34 districts of Balochistan during the five-day campaign. For this purpose, more than eleven thousand teams have been constituted to administer polio drops to the children during door to door drive.
Earlier on Thursday last, the federal government decided to initiate the nationwide anti-polio campaign. According to details, the federal government has completed discussion with the provinces on the nationwide anti-polio campaign.
In the first phase, the campaign was launched in 34 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from September 17 to 21, while the second nationwide phase will be initiated from September 20 to 24.
Moreover, in the third phase, the campaign in South Waziristan will be executed from September 27 to October 1. There will be a three-day anti-polio campaign and two days of catch-up campaigns across the country. The target has been set for anti-polio vaccination of 20.42 million children in Punjab, 9.35 million children in Sindh and 6.9 million children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Furthermore, in Balochistan 2.53 million children, in Azad Kashmir 0.25 million children, in Gilgit-Baltistan 0.35 million children will be vaccinated against the paralysing disease, while 335,387 front-line workers will take part in the national anti-polio campaign.
Earlier on Friday last, Special Assistant to the PM on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan has said that no polio case has been detected in the country for the last seven months.
Addressing an event, he said this is an important milestone which will be taken forward. He said, “Our future campaigns will focus on high risk areas in order to completely rid the country of this disease.” The special assistant clarified that polio drops are completely safe, appealing to the parents to get their children administered anti polio drops whilst giving no ears to propaganda.
Dr Faisal Sultan was appreciative of international organizations including Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for extending cooperation to Pakistan in anti-polio campaigns.
