Four-day anti-polio drive to kick off from tomorrow in Balochistan

As authorities confirm this year’s first polio case from the province’s Pishin district

QUETTA: A four-day ‘challenging’ anti-polio campaign is set to commence in Balochistan from tomorrow (Monday), as authorities on Saturday confirmed this year’s first polio case from the province’s Pishin district.

According to Balochistan Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) the campaign will be run in 33 districts of the province, including the provincial capital, and target 2.5 million children up to 5 years of age.

“Around 10,554 teams will take part in the campaign, including 8,949 mobile teams, 955 fixed sites and 591 transit points,” said the EOC Coordinator Rashid Razzaq, addressing a press conference at the EOC office.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Dr Thomsgin, Dr Masood Jogizai and religious scholar Maulana Anwarul Haq Haqqani were also present on the occasion.

The EOC official accepted that the campaign will be a difficult one due to negative propaganda against the anti-polio vaccine, which is wrongly attributed to creating infertility in its recipients. “In this scenario, religious scholars and parents must support the polio workers,” he said.

The official lamented that Pakistan and Afghanistan were the only countries in the world where polio virus still exists. He said one polio case has been reported in Balochistan this year while in the previous year 12 cases were reported.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2020.