Fighting polio: Five-day anti-polio drive to start from today

Five-day campaign to administer polio drops to 600,000 children in Rawalpindi District under five starts.

RAWALPINDI:

A five-day campaign to administer polio drops to 600,000 children in Rawalpindi District under five years of age will start from Monday. Any negligence on the part of vaccination team will not be tolerated at any cost and strict action will be taken against the concerned officials. This was said by District Revenue Officer Talat Mahmood Gondal during a meeting held at the District Commissioner’s Office.

Health Executive District Officer Dr Zafar Iqbal Gondal, District Officer Health Dr Khalid Randhawa, officers of the teaching hospitals, education department, social welfare and representatives of NGOs attended the meeting.

Dr Randhawa said that 1,136 mobile teams have been constituted. These teams will go door-to-door to administer drops to children. He said that 360 vaccination centres have been established at teaching hospitals, Tehsil Headquarters Hospitals, rural health centres, basic health units and government dispensaries in the district. Of these, 61 mobile teams will administer polio drops to children in public parks, Dr Randhawa added.

Dr Gondal said that in the cantonment areas, the services of army personnel will also be used. “It is a three-day campaign with two days for monitoring to ensure that no child has been left unvaccinated,” he added.

He said a comprehensive strategy has been devised for effective monitoring and appealed to parents to co-operate with the mobile teams. He asked the public to report to EDO Health or DO Health by telephone in case a mobile team does not reach their locality, enabling them to send a reserve team for vaccination.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th,  2011.