The Battle continues: Campaign to eradicate polio under way across Sindh

KARACHI: All 188 union councils of Karachi will be covered in the anti-polio drive that began on Monday and continues till October 1, said Karachi commissioner Ajaz Ahmed Khan while inaugurating the drive by administering vaccine drops to children at Sobhraj Hospital.

Other than Karachi, the campaign will be conducted across the province by the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for Polio in Sindh in which around 8.3 million children under the age of five will be administered the vaccine.

Out of the total targeted population, 2.2 million children are from the six districts of Karachi.

The commissioner appealed to the parents to cooperate with the polio teams and said that the disease will soon be eliminated from Pakistan with the consistent efforts of all the stakeholders, including the public.

He also thanked the religious scholars and leaders for helping the government to overcome the poliovirus in the country.

"We have the perfect opportunity to eradicate polio very soon. All environment samples of Sindh are negative for more than four months now," said EOC Sindh coordinator Fayaz Jatoi. He requested the parents to cooperate with polio teams and take part in eradicating polio from Pakistan.

The number of cases has fallen by more than 80% compared to previous years, which shows the massive improvement in the programme and is a reflection of hard work by the teams, Jatoi said, adding that this must be maintained.

This year, 14 polio cases were reported from across the country, which is a low figure compared to the past few years. Out of these, around four cases surfaced in Sindh, including one in Karachi, two in Shikarpur and one in Jacobabad.

Jatoi added that district polio control rooms must be active and under the leadership of district councils, those children who were missed during previous polio drives should be covered in the campaign.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where poliovirus is still endemic. Last year, 52 cases were reported in Pakistan whereas this year, around 12 cases of polio have been reported.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2016.