Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has urged parents to cooperate with the polio teams and get their children, aged five years and under, vaccinated against the crippling disease.
This he said in a special message to parents just after inaugurating a week-long anti- polio drive here.
Sindh Minister for Health Dr Azra Pechuho, Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput, Additional Inspector General of Police Karachi Javed Odho, Secretary Health Zulfiqar Shah, Coordinator EOC Fayaz Abbasi, and other officials were present on the occasion.
Syed Murad Ali Shah said he was happy to announce that during the last two years no new case of polio was reported in Sindh, but the disease “is yet to be eradicated from Pakistan.”
“We, with the support of parents, the efforts of the health department and Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for Eradication of Polio, and door-to-door campaign by polio workers have succeeded in controlling polio, but it is yet to be eradicated from the country,” he said and urged parents to cooperate with the teams visiting them to administer polio drops to their children.
It may be noted that the EOC of the health department has launched a week-long anti-polio drive from October 24 to 30, in 21 districts of Sindh, partially in the flood-affected districts Jamshoro, Shaheed Benazirabad, and Kambar.
During the week-long campaign launched on Monday, the provincial government has set a target of vaccinating around 6.6 million children. In the campaign, around 17,859 polio teams will participate.
