Polio eradication campaign begins today

Over two million children to be targeted in latest campaign

KARACHI: Sindh’s Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for polio is initiating an eight-day case response campaign in upper Sindh from today (Monday).

The campaign will be held till June 27 and will focus on Shikarpur, Sukkur, Ghotki, Khairpur, Jaccobabad, Kashmore, Larkana and Qambar-Shahdadkot districts.

The total target population of the campaign is 2,460,323 children under five years of age. The campaign will last six days, with a two-day catch-up period to ensure the vaccination of all those children who might be missed during the first six days.

“A special campaign has been planned in response to the cases that have been reported in northern Sindh in 2016,” said an official of EOC, Sindh, requesting anonymity.

Four cases of polio have been reported in Sindh in 2016 —two in Shikarpur in the same union council and one each in Jacobabad and Karachi.

“We appeal to parents to cooperate with vaccinators in this important campaign since Pakistan is closer to polio eradication than ever before,” said the official.



According to the EOC, the polio campaigns are not supposed to take place in the ‘high season’, which is June, July and August, but since the virus’s eradication is close, the officials have decided to continue the campaign in ‘high-risk zones’ in all the districts of northern Sindh and some areas of Karachi.

Emergency response unit, Sukkur, coordinator Muhammad Yousuf Shaikh told The Express Tribune that their vaccinators are going to brave the heat in Ramazan to conduct this activity. He added that EOC’s national coordinator will be monitoring the polio campaign in Shabbirabad union council.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 20^th, 2016.