Anti-polio drive: Officials told to reach out to missed children

'Polio drops will be administered to 131,500 children under the age of 5 of Islamabad city and its suburbs.'

ISLAMABAD:

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) chief has asked anti-polio campaign officials to reach out to missed children and devise a robust monitoring system during the three-day campaign that will kick off from January 20.

During the last campaign CDA achieved 98 per cent target coverage, Maroof Afzal said while presiding over a meeting regarding upcoming polio campaign.

He also asked them to identify gaps during the last campaign, select good polio workers and train them.

During the meeting, Health Services Director Dr Hassan Urooj briefed participants about the operational strategy.

He said polio drops will be administered to 131,500 children under the age of five of Islamabad city and its suburbs.

He further said that DHS had constituted 389 mobile, 107 fixed teams and 50 transit points to administer polio drops to the children.  The urban and suburban areas have been divided into 16 zones. For better results, 16 zonal supervisers and 88 sector supervises will monitor and supervise the polio teams. The DHS has requested Health Services Academy to provide additional supervision during the campaign. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2014.