Fighting the virus: Four-day polio campaign kicks off in Sindh

KARACHI: A four-day anti-polio campaign started in all the districts of Sindh on Tuesday.

In Karachi, commissioner Asif Hyder Shah initiated the campaign by inoculating polio drops to children at Sindh Government Hospital, Korangi No 5.

According to emergency operation centre (EOC) for polio, the fifth campaign of the year seeks to target more than 2.2 million children in the six districts of Karachi and 6.2 million in rest of the province. The campaign will continue till May 27.



More than 6,220 teams will administer polio drops to the children. A heavy contingent of Rangers and police has also been deployed to protect the volunteers, especially in high risk areas.



Recently, a four and a half-year-old boy in Shikarpur became the latest polio patient last month and the second in the same union council within three months.

According to EOC, four cases of polio virus emerged in Sindh, of which two were reported in Shikarpur and, one each in Jacobabad and Karachi (in Gadap Town).



The commissioner requested the parents to get their children vaccinated against polio and help eradicate the crippling disease from the country. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries left on polio-endemic nations' list, he added.

He appealed to the parents to cooperate with anti-polio teams. He said a helpline 1299 has also been established, which will operate 24 hours.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2016.