The Divisional Commissioner, Sukkur, Ghulam Mustafa Phull on Friday urged parents to vaccinate their children against the deadly polio virus. He said this while visiting the different areas to review and monitor the performance of anti-polio field teams.
The commissioner himself administered polio drops to children under five years of age and directed the officials concerned to remain present in the field and ensure the monitoring of polio workers so that no child could miss immunization.
On the occasion, District Health Officer (DHO), Sukkur, Dr Jamil Mahar informed that around 39,000 children had been administered the polio vaccine during the ongoing campaign. It was worth mentioned here that Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on launched week-long anti-Polio campaign from 13th-19th March in 16 High-Risk districts of the province by administering drops to the children in a ceremony organized at CM House, here by the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) for Polio Eradication.
The CM said that an anti-polio drive was being launched in 16 high-risk districts of the province which include all seven districts of Karachi division, Larkana Division (all five districts), Sukkur division (Sukkur & Ghotki), Hyderabad division (Hyderabad full and Jamshoro Partial) with an aim to vaccinate more than 5.6 million children of under 5 years of age. The minister for health told the chief minister that more than 40 thousand polio workers would be deployed and around 2,270 security personnel would be deployed in Karachi. Speaking on the occasion, the CM said that Pakistan was one of the two polio-endemic countries in the world along with Afghanistan.
