Fighting polio: Last campaign of the year to be launched today in Sindh

Two cases of polio reported so far in the province this year

KARACHI: The last polio campaign of the year will be launched today (Wednesday) in the province by the Emergency Operation Center (EOC) for Polio in Sindh. Two polio cases were reported from Sindh this year – both from Karachi. However, no case was reported in Karachi last year.

The final polio campaign of 2017 will take place in Karachi from today (December 20) till December 25. The campaign will be held in 167 union councils (UCs) of the metropolis and cover 1.85 million children who are less than five years of age.



Approximately 3,500 front line workers and supervisors will take part in the campaign and 4,500 police personnel will be providing them with security cover. In addition to this, Rangers personnel will also be patrolling the areas where the campaign is taking place.
Sindh EOC Coordinator Fayyaz Jatoi said that this campaign is extremely important as recently a polio case was reported from UC 4 Gadap. “We must respond to this by achieving maximum coverage,” Jatoi said.

According to him, the situation is improving but we continue vaccination drives to safeguard children and make Karachi polio-free in the coming years. “Parents should come forward and get their children, under five years of age, vaccinated. Those who refuse vaccination must stop doing so because refusing to get children vaccinated will put them in danger of contracting the virus,” he appealed.

Jatoi urged that polio has no cure and can only be prevented by administering two drops of the polio vaccine during every campaign.
Speaking about the progress made in 2017, Jatoi pointed out that Sindh reported two polio cases this year as opposed to eight cases in 2016, which shows that the province has come a long way.



“Challenges remain and we are constantly working to overcome them and this evident as the case count recorded in the province this year is the lowest so far. However, we must keep the focus on Karachi and interrupt virus transmission so we may make Sindh and Pakistan polio-free,” he said.

Similarly, in Pakistan, so far eight cases of polio have been reported in contrast to 20 cases in the entire country, of which eight cases were from Sindh and none from Karachi, which was considered to be the biggest reservoir of polio virus.



On Monday, the polio campaign was also launched in other areas of Sindh, which include Dadu, Ghotki, Jaccobabad, Kambar Shahdakot, Kashmore, Larkana, Shikarpur, Sukkur, Badin, Hyderabad, Khairpur, Matiari, Naushero Feroz, Sanghar, Sajawal, Thatta and Jamshoro. The campaign is targeting 5.41 million children less than five years of age. This campaign will continue until December 23.