Eliminating a disease: Polio drive held across 24 high-risk areas of Karachi
A complete ban on motorcycle riding was imposed in all areas during the drive.
The weekly polio drive was successfully carried out in 24 highly sensitive union councils (UCs) of the city amid tight security on Sunday.
A complete ban on motorcycle riding was imposed in all areas during the drive. "Everything was fine," said Sindh Health Secretary Iqbal Hussain Durrani, adding that polio workers carried out the campaign in the presence of law-enforcement agencies.
According to the category-1 plan of the health officials, 24 UCs, including Gadap, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Baldia, Orangi, Site, Bin Qasim, Landhi, Gulberg and Saddar were covered. The drive, launched on February 23, is being held every Sunday for the next four weeks. The polio teams will go door-to-door to administer polio drops, targeting around 500,000 children of less than five years of age. The teams are being escorted by police and paramilitary soldiers.
The officials had recommended that the campaign would be launched on Sundays due to the availability of law-enforcement agencies. Not a single untoward incident has taken place since the launch of the campaign.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 17th, 2014.