Polio vaccination in 25 districts from tomorrow

Staff Report

LAHORE: A special anti-polio campaign will be launched from September 10 to 12 in 25 polio-vulnerable districts of Punjab. During this campaign, polio vaccine will be administered to around 10 million children of up to five years of age.
Special Assistant to Chief Minster on Health Salman Rafique made this announcement while inaugurating the anti-polio campaign by administering polio vaccine to children of a nomadic locality in Shahdara.
He said that the three-day anti-polio campaign is being carried out in 25 districts, including Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Attock, Mianwali, Layyah, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur. He added the campaign would focus on those districts of Punjab that are adjacent to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He said that due to special circumstances and terrorist activities, the polio campaign could not be carried out effectively in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. As a result, thousands of children there are deprived of polio vaccine, he said.
Rafique said presence of polio virus anywhere in the country was a continuous threat for children. He said that keeping in view the aforementioned situation, a special anti-polio campaign is being launched in Punjab so that children could be saved from permanent disability.
He appealed to parents to cooperate with the government against polio and administer polio vaccine to their children. He said that polio caused disability for the entire life. He said that more than 22,000 mobile teams had been arranged to administer polio vaccine to around 10 million children. Strict procedures have been evolved for the surveillance and monitoring of these teams, he added.
He said that besides representatives of the World Health Organisation and UNICEF, special monitoring teams, comprising officers of Health Department, have been constituted which will review the performance of vaccination teams.

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