He said polio drops would be administered to unattended children within seven to 14 days. PHOTO: AFP
He was addressing a meeting on an anti-polio campaign at his office on Sunday afternoon. The campaign, which starts today and will end on Thursday, aims to administer anti-polio drops to more than 2.2 million children in 188 union councils of Karachi and around 7,639,838 children under five years of age in the province.
Khan directed all the officials related to the campaign to perform their duties with utmost responsibility and consider it their national duty. The commissioner remarked that the government will make all efforts to eliminate polio virus from the country, so that Pakistan can become polio-free. The pride of the country and the future of our children are linked with the anti-polio campaign, he added.
He further directed the participants of the meeting to ensure that no child is missed during the campaign and appealed to all the parents to cooperate with polio teams.
During the meeting, the deputy commissioners informed Khan about the arrangements of the campaign. It was also mentioned that the district administration, health department and international organisations are cooperating with each other for the campaign. The meeting was attended by Karachi additional commissioner Aslam Khoso, emergency operation centre for polio, Sindh, coordinator Fayaz Jatoi, deputy commissioners, polio task force, Karachi coordinator Dr Nusrat Ali, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provincial consultant Ahmed Ali Shaikh and officials from World Health Organization.
Concentrated efforts
Arrangements have been finalised for a four-day anti-polio campaign in Larkana as well. More than 316,850 children under five years of age will be administered oral polio vaccines in the campaign, which will also be held from today till Thursday.
Larkana district health officer Dr Abdul Fateh Bughio said 756 mobile teams have been constituted for the campaign and will visit all the areas in the district, including far-flung and remote areas, in order to complete the task.
Three roaming polio teams have also been constituted in Larkana city in order to administer the drops to children during the three-day campaign, he added. He also said that 49 transit polio teams have also been formed to administer the drops at the railway station, bus stops and various markets in the city.
Dr Bughio appealed to parents to cooperate with the visiting polio teams to make the national anti-polio campaign successful. He also urged religious scholars, elected representatives, non-governmental organisations and members of the local community to make the campaign a success by making efforts to encourage parents and children so that the district's children can be immunised against the crippling disease.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 24th, 2016.
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