Public health: 508,432 children to be immunised in four days

WHO representative says incidence of disease lower than last year.

BAHAWALPUR: As many as 508,432 children under the age of five years will be immunised against polio in a four-day campaign in Bahawalpur district.

District Coordination Officer Dr Naeem Rauf announced this at a meeting to review the arrangements for the campaign on Saturday.

The four-day campaign will start on July 18.

He said the district administration was on course to cover 371,915 houses in the district this year.

World Health Organisation representative Muhammad Abidi told the meeting that the number of polio cases in the first half of the year was 50 per cent less than those reported in the same period in 2011.

As many as 1,269 teams will take part in the campaign. Of these, 1,019 will go door to door and administer anti-polio vaccine to children of their homes. The remaining 145 will be assigned duties at hospitals, basic health units and rural health centres.

The DCO directed the assistant commissioner concerned to educate people in villages about the utility of the immunisation campaign. He said revenue officials should assist the Health Department in these campaigns.

He asked the officials to also carry out immunisation at bus stands, railway stations and toll plazas.

The DCO directed Executive District Officer (Health) Ihsanullah Warraich to ensure that the targets were met and asked him to regularly submit progress reports to his office.

The EDO (health) told the meeting that a control centre established at the DCO’s office would become functional before the start of the campaign on July 18. He said complaints about the vaccination campaign would be filed to the control centre through a toll-free telephone number.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2012.