Anti-polio vaccine being administered to a child. PHOTO: REUTERS
ISLAMABAD: In a statement issued by National Emergency Centre for Anti-polio, Islamabad, Prime Minister Focal Person on Polio Babar Bin Atta on Sunday said 38 million children would be administered polio drops during the last anti-polio campaign of the year.
He said all parents should ensure that their children were not deprived of these two drops during the anti-polio campaign starting from today (Monday).
He informed that 270,000 health guards were taking part in the four-day campaign who would visit houses to administer polio drops to children under the age of five years.
Eight polio cases had been registered this year from across the country which include three from the Dukki district of Balochistan, One from Charsadda district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), one case from Gadap, one case from Khyber district of K-P and two cases from Bajaur.
There had been 97 per cent decrease in polio cases as compared to 2014 when 306 cases were reported. Despite this huge success, presence of polio virus in sewer water of the seven big cities of the country had been confirmed.
These include Sukkur, Karachi, Peshawar, Mardan, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The report was issued by the national anti-polio programme at the beginning of the month. Babar appealed every Pakistani to play the role of a health guard and ensure that no child is deprived of the polio drops.
National Coordinator for Emergency Operation Centre Dr Rana Safdar said the present season was best for the eradication of polio and the polio programme would try its best to finish the polio virus forever. He said that the polio programme was ensuring that children were given polio drops so that the country could get rid of the virus.
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