700 vaccinators to be deployed at entry points of Rawalpindi

Recurrence of polio virus makes it imperative to vaccinate every child in the city

RAWALPINDI: The District Health Authority of Rawalpindi has sent recommendations to the Ministry of Health to recruit 700 additional staff members for polio vaccination at entry points of the city.

The decision was made in accordance with the detection of poliovirus in series of environmental sampling tests.

According to the recommendation from the office of District Health Authority, it was mentioned that although Rawalpindi city was polio free however the environmental sampling reports identified the presence of polio virus. Thus, it was recommended to deploy polio vaccination staff at railway stations, airport and other entry points of the city to vaccinate children before their entrance in the city.



The Chief Executive of District Health Authority told that the anti-polio drive, for children up to five years, which started on February 16 in the Rawalpindi district with a special focus on 16 Union Councils, where children up to 10 years old would be targeted, will continue till March 1.

He added that during the campaign, special focus would be on houses which had earlier refused to vaccinate their children as well as the houses where children would be unavailable.

He told that if any child was absent from his house and visiting or staying at some other place, the polio vaccination teams working in that area would be informed and given the credentials such as address and phone number to locate the house where the child was currently present.

Children up to 10-years-of-age will be administered polio drops in 16 union councils of the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) and the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) areas from February 19.

The nine-day-long drive will continue until February 27.

Anti-Polio Drive In-Charge Chaudhry Muhammad Hussain said that they used to limit the polio drive to children of five-years-of-age.

But this time, the government has decided to widen the net it casts by including children up to 10-years-of-age and adopt a zero-tolerance policy to administer polio vaccinations.

He added that environmental samples have tested positive for the polio virus consecutively for the past eight months in the city, giving rise to an alarm.



During the drive, Hussain said that polio teams will administer the vaccine to children in 10 union councils of the city from 3 to 11, and UC 37, while six wards of the cantonments will also be targeted, including Ward No 3, 9 and 10.

These areas, located along the Nullah Leh, have been declared as high-risk areas.

Meanwhile, sources in the district health department have said that Rawalpindi is free of the poliovirus — pointing to the absence of any child being infected with the polio virus in the city for years.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2019.