Week-long polio drive begins in Sindh tomorrow

Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazl Pechuho inaugurated on Saturday the second province-wide polio immunisation drive following the coronavirus outbreak in country, set to begin from tomorrow (Monday).

Addressing the inauguration ceremony, she said the campaign would be conducted from September 21 to September 27 by the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for polio in Sindh.

Spanning all 29 districts of the province, the drive will cover around 9.15 million children under the age of five years, who will be administered the oral polio vaccine, the minister said, adding that of the target population, 2.2 million children would be vaccinated in Karachi alone.

She elaborated that more than 50,000 polio workers would participate in the door-to-door vaccination campaign and 5,000 law enforcement personnel would be deployed for their security.

"Polio campaigns are of utmost importance and we must ensure the administration of the oral polio vaccine to our children so as to safeguard them against the crippling disease and ensure their healthy future," she remarked.

The minister pointed out that Pakistan was one of the two countries on the world where polio continued to prevail, the other being Afghanistan. Hence, it is necessary that children are vaccinated, during routine immunisation and otherwise, she added.

According to Dr Pechuho, polio immunisation drives in the province had hit a snag after the outbreak of Covid-19 and routine imminisation was also disrupted.

"This has left an immunity gap that must be filled immediately, as children are more susceptible to contracting the [polio]virus now than before," she stressed.

Along similar lines, an EOC spokesperson said, "While we are dealing with the pandemic, we must also ensure immunisation to prevent diseases among children."

Urging the media to raise awareness about the importance of immunisation, he said that realising the same, the Sindh government launched a small-scale polio vaccination campaign in East and West districts in July, following the outbreak of Covid-19. The campaign covered 260,700 children, he said, adding that a wider campaign was then conducted in August, during which around nine million children were vaccinated.

"Those drives were conducted in line with the World Health Organisation's pandemic-related guidelines, and the same will be following during the coming campaign," he assured.

He added that during the campaign, teams would also raise awareness about Covid-19.