Polio drive: Half a million children vaccinated

QUETTA: Half a million children were vaccinated during the recently concluded vaccination drive in Quetta district, the Provincial Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) Balochistan’s Coordinator Faisal Ahmed said.

He also voiced his concern over the virus being found in the environmental samples taken from the sewage system of the city which he termed as alarming. He said massive population movement, pockets of missed children and fragile security situation are the main challenges faced by the program in the district.

He said the Three main reasons of children missing a polio campaign included teams not visiting every house, children being away when team visits and parents refusing vaccination.

He said in a statement that in October’s campaign 4,713 vaccine refusals were reported in Quetta district out of which 4,082 children were successfully vaccinated with the help of health or religious scholars and district administration.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2016.