Polio vaccination drive starts
A health worker administers oral polio vaccine to a child at a slum in Karachi during the week-long inoculation drive which kicked off on Monday. PHOTO: APP
Teams of polio vaccinators with thier blue ice boxes on shoulders set out on a seven-day campaign on Monday to inoculate more than more than nine million children across Sindh including Karachi
Polio workers went door-to-door and administered oral polio vaccine (OPV) drops to children under the age of five, while children were also inoculated at schools and hospitals under the campaign.
According to the spokesperson of Sindh Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for polio, more than nine million children across Sindh and over two million children in Karachi will be vaccinated against polio during the week-long campaign.
A case of polio was reported in Balochistan in January 2021. However, no polio case has been reported in Sindh since July 2020 while all environmental samples of the province have also tested negative for the virus.
The provincial health authorities have urged the citizens to cooperate with immunization teams and protect their children from lifelong disability by administering them with polio drops
Meanwhile, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation Administrator Barrister Murtaza Wahab has said that citizens should support the government and UNICEF in the fight against polio to protect future generations from the disease.
"Polio is a risk that, if left unchecked, can lead to permanent disability for life," the administrator said in a message to the citizens.
The only way to prevent this disease is polio vaccine, so all parents should give polio vaccine to their children.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 21st, 2021.