Anti-polio campaign: Over 70,000 children under five to be inoculated in Mirpur

4,000 vials of the anti-polio vaccine arranged for the drive.

MIRPUR:

As many as 70,131 children under the age of five in Mirpur district will be inoculated against polio during the three-day nationwide anti-polio campaign scheduled to start from Monday.

District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Muhammad Bashir Chaudhry stated this during the campaign’s curtain-raiser on Saturday.

“We are aiming towards eradicating polio from Pakistan, which is why we have declared 2012 as the polio free year,” said Chaudhry. He said that not a single case of polio has surfaced in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) since the past ten years, “and we want to make sure it stays that way”.

The DHO said that a total of 4,000 vials of the anti-polio vaccine have been arranged for the campaign.

He said that Mirpur district has been divided into four zones with a total of 20 union councils, adding that four supervisors have been appointed for each zone and 45 health officers for the union councils.

Chaudhry said that 180 mobile teams, constituted by over 400 paramedical workers, have been mobilised to conduct door-door- inoculation across the district.

He said that 38 fixed inoculation centres and 17 transit points have also been set up, adding that “catch up” teams will remain mobilized to conduct the campaign even on the fourth and fifth day if need be.

About the national anti-polio campaign, 24 million children up to five years of age will be targeted across the country during the three-day drive, said Chaudhry.

He said that out of a population of 438,319 of Mirpur, all children under five have been targeted under the drive. He added that similar arrangements have been made for Kotli and Bhimbher districts of Mirpur division.

A senior medic, Dr Amin Chaudhry, urged the people to cooperate with the staff conducting the anit-polio campaign to make the drive a success.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2012.