Beating the virus: Four-day polio campaign kicks off

KARACHI: The Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for Polio in Sindh launched on Monday the 'National Immunisation Days' - a polio campaign - across the pronvince. The campaign will end November 24.

This polio campaign is targeting 8.6 million children under five years of age in all districts of Sindh, including 2.4 million children in the six districts and 188 union councils of Karachi.

More than 56,000 teams will be taking part in the campaign across the province, out of which approximately 12,000 teams will be deployed in Karachi.

There have been five recorded cases of polio in Pakistan this year, out of which one was from Killa Abdullah, one from Gilgit-Baltistan, one from Lakki Marwat and one from Karachi.



The campaign kicked off smoothly in all districts of Sindh and will continue for the next four days. In Karachi, more than 5,000 policemen are providing security cover, while Rangers personnel are also on patrol.

"Parents must understand that in order to build the immunity of children under five years of age, they must be vaccinated on multiple occasions," said Sindh EOC Coordinator Fayyaz Jatoi.

He said that parents must cooperate and get their child vaccinated during every campaign, as recommended by all major private and government hospitals as well as the Pakistan Paediatric Association and the Pakistan Medical Association.

"If parents comply, we can eradicate polio once and for all," Jatoi said.