Fighting polio: ‘We owe our children a healthy life’

DCO wants health officials to double their efforts.

BAHAWALPUR:

“We need to work on emergency basis to eliminate polio from our society,” Rahim Yar Khan District Coordination Officer Nabeel Javed said on Wednesday.

He was addressing a meeting to review arrangements for the upcoming polio campaign. The DCO said every department should observe their duty in the vaccination campaign with honesty and patriotism.

The campaign will start from November 18 and end on the 20th. He said six polio cases had been reported in the Punjab this year.

“This is a point of high concern. We have to double our efforts to maintain our status as the polio-free district,” he said.

The DCO directed Health Department to make the campaign effective on union council level. He said negligence would not be tolerated.

He said children of families travelling during campaign days were at a high risk of being missed. He directed officials to ensure that vaccination camps were set up at bus stands and railway stations.

He said prayer leaders should be asked to mention the importance of vaccination during sermons.

“We owe our children a healthy life. People need to be sensitised about this right,” he said.

He said parents of children who are missed in the drive should inform the Health Department on its toll free numbers.

He said polio teams would be sent to those areas immediately. In case the officials were informed after the drive, the officials would make list of such children and they would be given vaccine in the second vaccination phase.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2013.