With enthusiasm, girls queue up for polio drops

Around 98 per cent children administered with polio drops during three-day polio campaign

QUETTA: In blue and white uniform girls under five-year of age have lined up for polio drops in Government Girls High School Killi Umer, Quetta.

Done with their turns Tayyaba and her friends pose with their marked fingers as they have been administered with polio drops.

“We have polio vaccination teams in our school and we are getting polio drops,” says Tayyaba. She was happy as now she can easily enjoy her winter vacations.

This was the last campaign in Tayyaba’s school for the current year as the school will be closed for winter vacations re-opening in March.



Vaccination in schools is a regular feature of the polio eradication drive. Alone in Quetta, the target was to cover over 28,000 children in schools including madrasas during the three-day vaccination drive conducted in 15 districts of Balochistan. Moreover, the drive was targeting over 1.3 million children in the province.

“We know the importance of polio vaccination. We are aware that if children don’t get these drops, they might be susceptible to the risk of poliovirus attack,” says Salmah Mumtaz, Vice Principal of Government Girls High School Killi Umer. With the consent of parents, the school allows teams to hold camp and vaccinate students, she added.

Muhammad Ashraf, father of one of the students studying in Tayyaba’s school said “Previously, the community refused vaccinations because of rumours and misconceptions. But now they are aware of the disease and accept polio vaccinations”.



This year, in Pakistan, eight cases of polio virus were reported – three each from Dukki district of Balochistan and the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), and one each from Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

According to sources from Emergency Operation Centre, around 98 per cent children were administered with polio drops during the three-day campaign.

The other country battling poliovirus and Pakistan’s neighbour, Afghanistan reported 19 polio cases this year, which poses great threat to the children specially residing in border areas. Cross border movement is also one of the reasons of repeated rounds especially in Quetta.

On an average 20,000-25,000 children cross Pakistan-Afghanistan Friendship Gate every month. In order to reduce these numbers, mobile teams were introduced in the province.