Polio vaccination drive kicks off

Entire Rawalpindi region to be covered during 4-day drive, says RCB official

RAWALPINDI/ JHELUM:

Representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr Palitha Mahipala inaugurated a four-day anti-polio campaign at Cantonment General Hospital (CGH) on Saturday.

Rawalpindi Cantonment Board Cantonment Executive Officer Imran Gulzar, Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner Tahir Farooq, Assistant Commissioner Cantt Anisha Hashim, District Health Officer Ehsan Ghani, CGH Administrator Hassan Ibrahim, Deputy Administrator Attiquddin, OPD Incharge Muhammad Shahid, officers of WHO and Health Department were also present.

Talking to the media, Dr Mahipala said that the first anti-polio campaign of 2022 had been kicked off in Pakistan, adding, that children up to five years of age would be administered drops under the drive.

Significant steps were taken in Pakistan to eradicate polio and not a single polio case was reported in Pakistan last year, he said, and appreciated the role of the front-line polio workers. He urged the parents to get their children vaccinated against polio and extend cooperation with the anti-polio teams.

Read: ‘No poliovirus found in Rawalpindi’

He expressed the hope that due to the team efforts and response of the people, the country would soon become a polio-free country.

Imran Gulzar on the occasion said that a four-day polio campaign was launched in the last week of January and different areas of Rawalpindi cantonment and its surrounding areas were covered. He added that this four-day campaign would cover the entire Rawalpindi region.

Gulzar said the polio campaign was launched under Pakistan's Expanded Programme on Immunization with an aim to make Pakistan a polio-free country. He said that no polio case was reported in Punjab during the last 14 months.

Meanwhile, Jhelum Deputy Commissioner Noman Hafeez also inaugurated the polio vaccination campaign by vaccinating children under the age of five at the child ward of District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) on Saturday.

During the campaign, more than 218,000 children across the district will be vaccinated. Hafeez appealed to parents to immunise their children to protect them from lifelong disability. He said that civil society, scholars and teachers should play their due role in making the polio campaign a success.

The health department will meet its target as achieved in the past and the performance of polio teams will be reviewed daily.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2022.