Staff Reporter
Islamabad/Peshawar
A five-day polio immunisation drive was commenced across Pakistan on Monday during which over 40.1 million children will be administered oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) to prevent children from the crippling disease. The first anti-polio drive of 2021 has begun across the country which would be continued till January 15 including three days of vaccination and two days of catch-up activities in high-risk areas.
During the ongoing campaign, 20.1 million children under five years age will be vaccinated in Punjab, 9.2 million in Sindh, 7.1 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 2.5 million in Balochistan, 7 million in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and 240,000 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). Moreover, the children aged between 6 months to five years will also be administered Vitamin A drops in order to boost their immunity of the organism.
285,000 health workers are taking part in the national polio immunisation campaign which includes 28,000 area in-charges and 8,700 UCMOs. 222,000 mobile members, 10,500 fixed and 12,000 transit team members will be deployed to run the campaign, moreover, mobile polio vaccination teams will visit far-flung areas of Balochistan and KP provinces.
Prior to launching anti-polio drive this year, the health workers had been given special training regarding standard operating procedures (SOPs) to prevent themselves from contracting novel coronavirus.
Meanwhile a five-day anti polio immunization drive of the current year started across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday under which over 7 million children under the age of five would be vaccinated against the crippling disease. According to the Health department 28,000 teams including 25,734 mobile, 1913 fixed, 1109 roaming and 133 transit teams would administer polio drops to the vulnerable target population in the province.
As per the directives of Chief Secretary KP Dr Kazim Niaz foolproof security would be provided to the health teams while COVID-19 SOPs including use of face masks, hand sanitizers and social distancing would strictly be monitored to avoid spread of the contagious disease. The Chief Secretary has appealed to the parents and civil society to actively participate in the drive and help the government to make the country polio-free.
Meanwhile additional Assistant Commissioner Batkhela, Muazzam Khan inaugurated a three-day anti-polio campaign in Malakand district on Monday. He also visited Batkhela and supervised anti polio immunization campaign on the directives of Deputy Commissioner Malakand Rehan Khatak. The three-day anti-polio campaign starts here today with a mission to eradicate polio from the country. As many as 717,694 children under the age of 5 years will be administered anti-Polio drops in the district during the anti-polio drive. Total of 1770 teams have been constituted for the campaign which included 1464 mobile teams, 173 fixed teams and 133 transit teams.
