Poliovirus detection triggers vaccination drive

RAWALPINDI:

The Rawalpindi district administration has decided to launch another anti-polio campaign from August 10 to 13 following the detection of poliovirus in sewage samples collected from the district.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the District Polio Eradication Committee, chaired by Deputy Commissioner retired Captain Nadeem Nasir. The meeting was attended by officials from the Health Department, World Health Organization (WHO) Coordinator Dr Shumaila, representatives of the Polio Eradication Programme and officers from relevant departments.

Participants reviewed in detail the campaign's operational arrangements, including the microplan, deployment of vaccination teams, coverage of high-risk areas, security, cold chain management, logistics, social mobilisation and the monitoring mechanism.

A target has been set to administer polio vaccine drops to 989,924 children under the age of five across Rawalpindi district during the four-day campaign. For this purpose, 4,215 mobile teams, 232 fixed teams, 176 transit teams, 686 area in-charges and 200 UCMOs will be deployed.