Door-to-door campaign: Over 5,000 children to be administered polio drops

Three-day drive slated to commence on September 14

BAHAWALPUR:

DCO Imran Sikandar Baloch said on Friday that 587,831 children under the age of five would be inoculated against polio under a three-day door-to-door drive that would commence on September 14.

Baloch made the remarks in a meeting at the committee room of his office. He said the Health Department had constituted 1,030 teams in this regard. The DCO impressed on officials the importance of effectively discharging their duties. He said they should strive to ensure that every child under the age of five was vaccinated. The DCO said the children of refugees in the district should also be vaccinated to ensure that the nation was rid of polio. He said special arrangements should be made to ensure that children in remote areas such as Cholistan were vaccinated.

The DCO said officials should remain vigilant is public places such as bazaars to ensure that children frequenting the venues with their parents were vaccinated. He said department teams should work in two shifts. Baloch said members of mobile health teams should be properly trained before they were sent in the field to ensure that drops were properly administered to children.

Saeed Asghar of the Health Department told those present on the occasion that Bahawalpur had been a polio-free district since 2011. He said all departments would strive to make the campaign a success. Asghar said those children that had not been vaccinated in the campaign could get vaccinated from health centres in their vicinity on September 18.

He said 1,030 teams had been constituted to make the campaign a success. Asghar said 147 teams would be deployed across the Bahawal Victoria Hospital, the THQ,  the basic health units and dispensaries among other locations. He said 106 teams would be posted at the railway station, toll plazas and bus depots. Asghar said 15 teams would be deployed across bazaars.

The official said Vitamin A drops would also be administered to children along with polio drops. He said team members would be trained on how to properly administer drops between September 7 and 9.

Fateh Rehman of the World Health Organisation (WHO) stressed the need for effective coordination among various departments to make the campaign a success.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2015.