Polio eradication: Three-day drive kicks off in AJK

Over 0.6 million children under five to be immunised.

MIRPUR:

Like elsewhere in the country, the National Polio Eradication Campaign kicked off in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Monday. The three-day campaign will immunise 0.6 million children under the age of five throughout AJK, according to sources in the State Health Services Department. The sources said that the department has arranged for about 0.7 million anti-polio vaccines for the campaign.

Over 23,000 mobile paramedical staff teams have been formed, whereas 340 fixed units and 129 transit points have been set up in all 10 districts of the state for the campaign. The fixed centres, sources continued, will be set up at hospitals, basic health units and rural health centres. A total of 4,500 workers will visit door-to-door and immunise the children. As many as 89 zone supervisors will overlook the campaign being conducted by 208 in-charges of different areas in AJK.

Inaugural ceremony at Mirpur

Over 71,000 children will be immunised during the anti-polio campaign in Mirpur district, said the Mirpur District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Muhammad Bashir Chaudhry. He was speaking at the campaign’s inaugural session on Monday. Dr Muhammad Iqbal, the former AJK Health Services Director, inaugurated the campaign at the Mother and Child Health Care (MCHC) Centre.

The district has been divided into four zones with the induction of one tehsil supervisor in each zone. One ward in-charge will supervise the campaign in the determined area falling in each of 45 union councils in the district, the DHO said.

Dr Bashir said that a total of 182 mobile teams of paramedics have been constituted and 38 fixed centres have been set up in the district. Besides, 17 transit and 38 fixed points have also been set up in various parts of the district to feed travelling children anti-polio vaccine. He said that 4,000 vials of the polio vaccine have been arranged only for the district. The ceremony was largely attended by the parents, children and doctors.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2012.