Polio campaign: 2,755 teams to vaccinate 1.18m children in Faisalabad

BAHAWALPUR/ FAISALABAD:

The Faisalabad district administration has constituted 2,755 teams for a polio vaccination drive that will begin in the district on November 18. Out of these, 2,240 teams will go door-to-door and 145 will be stationed.

The teams aim to administer vaccine to 1.18 million children in the district in three days.

District Coordination Officer Noorul Amin Mengal on Sunday held a meeting to review the arrangements. The meeting was told that 458 area-in-charges and 289 union council monitoring officers would supervise the campaign. The DCO stressed the need for launching an effective awareness campaign to persuade parents of the target children.

It was decided that announcements would be made in this regard from neighbourhood mosques. Banners and streamers would be displayed at prominent places, including gates of all schools.

The DCO directed the officials concerned to organise declamation contests at schools to highlight the issue. He said telecom companies would be asked to send text messages to subscribers to create awareness and generate interest in the drive.

He directed the education executive district officer to convey directions to all schools to ensure that parents were asked to produce their children’s vaccination cards at the time of admission. The union council secretaries were asked not to register birth of a child without seeing its vaccination card.

The DCO also directed Health Department officials to use computers to store data of all children in the district. He said this would help them get to children for the next drive and reduce chances of missing any children.

He said he would not tolerate carelessness or irresponsibility from the staff.

Earlier, Health EDO Waqar Sadiq and District Officer Liaquat Ali gave a briefing about the plan for the campaign. They said polio workers had been trained for the drive.

Five-day campaign in Bahawalpur

The campaign will last for five days in Bahawalpur. As many as 545,198 children will be given vaccine, District Coordination Officer Imran Sikandar Baloch told a meeting on Sunday.

The DCO directed health officials to remain vigilant.

The meeting was told that 1,284 teams would take part in the campaign. Out of these, 1,019 teams will make door-to-door visits and 145 will be deployed at schools, hospitals, bus stands and markets.

As many as 226 area-in-charges, six tehsil supervisors and 65 lady health supervisors would supervise the campaign.

The DCO directed the agriculture and community development EDOs, the Bahawal Victoria Hospital medical superintendent, the Auqaf Department administrator, the Bahawalpur DPO, the Motorway and traffic police SPs and the additional district collector to cooperate with the district government for the campaign.

The DCO said he would personally monitor the campaign.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th,2013.