A five-day anti-polio drive will inaugurate on Mon-day (October 24) in Bannu district in which a total of 253,274 children aged up to five years to be vac-cinated against the polio. A total of 1125 mobile teams, 68 fixed and 72 transit teams have been con-stituted to give polio drops to children at houses or other places including bus terminals, exit and entry points and markets.
Similarly, a six member expert team of the National Emergency Centers Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two-member team from the National Emergency Opera-tion Center have arrived in Bannu to monitor the drive and assist the district administration in this regard. Speaking on the occasion, the ADC said it was not the responsibility only of the government to prevent the deadly diseases, but each of the indi-viduals of the society should share his responsibility to make the entire zone completely polio-free. He also appealed to parents to cooperate with polio teams and get their children vaccinated against the deadly disease.
He also asked people to not pay heed to negative propaganda against polio and play a role in eradicat-ing polio from the entire district. He said the ar-rangements had already been reviewed in meetings with all stakeholders to make the entire drive a suc-cess and conduct it in a peaceful manner. He also directed the staff deployed for the campaign to leave no stone unturned to reach out to each child and administer anti-polio drops.
Meanwhile Commissioner Multan division, Engineer Aamir Khattak said that the parents’ cooperation was inevi-table to make the country polio-free. He expressed these views while presiding over a meeting to re-view the performance of the health department here on Saturday. He asked the citizens to get their chil-dren administered anti-polio drops to save them from lifelong disability. He warned that strict legal action will be taken against parents who refuse to administer polio drops to their kids.
The anti-polio campaign will start from October 24 and continue till Oct 28 in Multan in connection with world polio day. Commissioner Aamir Khattak tasked the health department to complete all the arrangements regarding this. Exactly 4,248 teams will administer polio drops to more than 9 lac chil-dren across the district. Commissioner also ordered speeding up anti-dengue activities. The health officials briefing the Commissioner said that 755 confirmed cases of dengue were reported across Multan division this year.—APP
