Nation in final push against polio

OPV vaccination campaign begins today in 88 districts

Pakistan will continue its final push towards eliminating the polio virus by beginning a sub-national door to door OPV vaccination campaign on Nov 12.

The campaign will begin in 88 out of the 94 planned districts whereas it has been delayed till Nov 19 for six districts of Balochistan (Zhob, Killa Saifullah, Dukki, Loralai, Musakhel & Barkhan) due to by-elections.

The program will target a total of 21.3 million children including under the age of five. 6.88 million in 12 districts of Punjab, 7 million in 36 districts of Sindh, 5.5 million in 25 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 1.5 million in 20 districts of Balochistan and 0.33 million children in Islamabad.

It will be a three day campaign involving a total of 150,000 personnel striving to achieve the set targets across Pakistan including 16,847 Area Incharges, 4,004 UC Medical Officers, 110,449 Mobile, 5,305 Fixed and 7,842 Transit team members.

Moreover, considering its significance, the National EOC has deployed 46 experts to facilitate preparedness and ground implementation of campaign activities by the local teams in priority areas.

Government support at every level and cooperation of communities and parents has been imperative in Pakistan's recent successes actualising a case decline from 306 in 2014 to 8 so far in 2018.

The National Task Force in its meeting held on Nov 9 urged the nation to ensure all-out efforts for a polio-free Pakistan.

As this goal is being pursued, the National EOC further requested every Pakistani to assume role of sehat muhafiz for vaccinating all children everywhere in the country.