Set to commence: Anti-polio drive across eight districts from 15th

5,808,387 children will be vaccinated, says Health Secretary

LAHORE:

An anti-polio campaign will commence across eight districts of the province from February 15, Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khwaja Salman Rafique said.

Rafique said the campaign would be undertaken as part of the Sub-National Immunisation Day. He said the campaign would be carried out across eight select districts deemed to be at a greater risk vis-a-vis polio transmission. Rafique said the districts were Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi, Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur, Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur.

Rafique said district authorities had been instructed to make requisite arrangements to ensure that the campaign was carried out effectively. He said the provincial Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) would effectively coordinate with authorities across the districts to guarantee timely micro-planning, mapping of high-risk gypsies and vaccine supply.

Primary and Secondary Healthcare Secretary Ali Jan Khan said 5,808,387 children under the age of five resident in 839 union councils across the districts would be vaccinated under the campaign. He said polio had been declared a national emergency. Khan said DCOs had been taking complete ownership of polio-eradication efforts in their jurisdictions.

Health Services DG Mukhtar Hussain Syed said a total of 15,121 teams would discharge duties in the campaign. He said this included 13,030 mobile teams, 1,290 stationed teams and 801 transit teams. He said great attention would be devoted to movement of people at provincial borders. Syed said this would be done so especially in case of people coming from areas known to have polio circulation. The health services DG said special attention was being given to south Punjab districts in a larger anti-polio strategy focussed on central Pakistan. He said effective coordination would be ensured with authorities in districts across other provinces that neighboured the Punjab to ensure best results.

EPI Director Munir Ahmed urged parents to ensure that their children were vaccinated against polio. He said they could take them to EPI centres where staff was available to inoculate them against nine other preventable diseases. He said parents could call on 0800-99000 if polio teams did not visit areas they were resident in while the campaign was being carried out.

The Punjab has been largely able to impede transmission of polio from high-risk areas. Of the 54 polio cases reported across the country in 2015, only two have surfaced in the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2016.