Five-day polio eradication drive starts on Monday

Minister confirms campaign will be delayed by a day in Lahore due to NA-120 by-polls

LAHORE: The five-day national polio eradication drive will start all over Punjab from Monday (September 18), said Minister for Primary and Secondary Healthcare Khawaja Imran Nazir on Thursday.

However, in Lahore, the five-day campaign will start with a one-day delay from Tuesday (September 19) due to by-elections in NA-120, the minister added.  “The Punjab government wants to reach and vaccinate every single child before we enter the high risk polio season”, said Khawaja Imran.



“This is absolutely critical in order to ensure that not one more child suffers from the incurable disease”, the minister added. Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare Ali Jan Khan said the province will be implementing the campaign more aggressively in Rawalpindi, Lahore and South Punjab.

“A polio case in Lodhran and consistent positive environmental samples in Rawalpindi indicate that children are more vulnerable in these districts”, he said.

Punjab’s Emergency Operation Coordinator Dr Munir Ahmed said a polio case and consistent positive environment samples have been a cause of concern, but not a setback to the efforts to eradicate the virus. The provincial emergency operations centre has constituted over 44,000 teams who will go door-to-door to vaccinate over 18.5 million children under-five all over the province.



They include teams deployed at major bus stands, inter-provincial borders, airports, railway stations and hospitals.  Dr Munir said parents may contact helpline 0800-99000 if polio teams do not turn up in their areas.

Punjab has had no polio case in 2016, but a child was paralysed by the virus in Lodhran at the beginning of 2017. Four polio cases have been reported in Pakistan this year from Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan, Sindh and Balochistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2017.