Anti-polio: 400,000 children administered polio drops

The day-long campaign was conducted amid high security.

KARACHI:

Vaccination teams successfully managed to conduct the anti-polio campaign in 19 union councils of the city on Sunday.

The day-long campaign, in which over 400,000 children below the age of five years were administered anti-polio drops, was conducted amid high security. The teams, however, could not reach five sensitive UCs because of security reasons, where the campaign was deferred until Monday (today).

In the wake of attacks on polio teams in the city, the provincial government had decided to launch a one-day anti-polio campaign in 24 UCs that were considered ‘high risk’ areas. “Thankfully, we managed to complete the vaccination campaign in 19 UCs without any mishap,” said the Health secretary, Iqbal Durrani, while talking to The Express Tribune. “We will continue the campaign in the remaining five high-risk UCs of the district Malir on Monday.”

Special measures were taken to ensure security for the teams during the campaign.

The Sindh government had imposed a ban on motorcycle riding in the union councils where the campaign was conducted on Sunday. Meanwhile, around 3,000 police personnel, commandos and Rangers personnel were deployed for the security of the polio teams.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2014.