Polio Immunisation: 10m kids to be vaccinated in special drive

More than 22,000 mobile teams set up to administer polio drops to 9.98 million children.

LAHORE:

Some 10 million children aged up to five in 25 Punjab districts are to be vaccinated against polio in a special campaign conducted by local authorities and international aid agencies.

The campaign will target those districts of the Punjab – including Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Attock, Mianwali, Bhakkar, Layyah, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur – where the polio virus has been found, said Chief Minister’s Special Assistant on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique, who would inaugurate campaign by administering the polio vaccine to children at camps in Shahdara on Monday.

He said that the campaign would also focus on district neighbouring Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. He said that polio vaccination campaigns in K-P had been unsuccessful because of the lack of security and other “special circumstances”.

Rafique said that polio was a threat to children and could leave them permanent disability.

He said that more than 22,000 mobile teams had been set up to administer polio drops to 9.98 million children. He said these teams would be monitored by representatives of the Health Department, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (Unicef).

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