Over 2.1 million children to be vaccinated

Year's second single-phase campaign being launched today.

KARACHI: Over 2.1 million children under five years of age in 188 union councils of the provincial capital will be targeted in the second single-phase polio campaign of the year, being launched on Monday (today) across the city.

Health officials are positive that the drive will be as successful as the one carried out last month.

According to the health department, 6,220 mobile teams have been assigned the task while 1,395 area incharges will be available to assist workers.

With the help of international experts, the department has recently scheduled a monthly drive against the crippling disease among the children below five years of age.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Dr Muhammad Usman Chachar, the coordinator of the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), said that the monthly drive against the virus was necessary. "It is because of weak routine immunisation," he explained.

Chachar said the single-phase campaign was very successful in January, adding that that the monthly campaign across the city was made possible due to the cooperation of the Sindh police.

Meanwhile, the polio drive is also being launched in other districts of the province, except Mirpurkhas division and Badin, Thatta and Tando Mohammad Khan districts.

Health experts have appealed to parents to cooperate with health workers and get each child under five years of age vaccinated. The country's first polio case of this year was confirmed in a three-year-old child on February 8.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th,  2016.