Chief Secretary Punjab Zahid Akhtar Zaman has directed the health department to improve routine immunization across the province for a complete eradication of polio. He issued this directive while presiding over a high-level meeting at the Civil Secretariat here on Monday. The meeting reviewed health reforms and measures to control polio, dengue, and conjunctivitis. It was decided that a special campaign to improve routine immunization would be launched in eight districts – Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, DG Khan, Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Jhang, Gujarat and Pakpattan. The Chief Secretary Punjab ordered that the ongoing national anti-polio campaign in the province be made a success and 100 percent coverage of missed children be ensured. He said that continuous efforts were needed to eradicate polio and dengue. He said that concrete measures were being taken for the improvement of health and education sector, adding that the implementation of health insurance programme in government hospitals was yielding positive results. Secretary Health Ali Jan gave a detailed briefing at the meeting. He said that in the anti-polio campaign of October, the health authorities had set a target of vaccinating more than 22 million children in 36 districts of Punjab. He said the rate of routine immunization in Lahore had increased by 15.3 percent under a special campaign. He mentioned that all necessary arrangements had been made in the hospitals for dealing with the patients of conjunctivitis whose number was seeing a downward trend. He said that Lahore and Rawalpindi were on high alert regarding dengue. Top officials of the Health department attended the meeting while all divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners participated through video link. Deputy Commissioner Lahore Rafia Haider formally inaugurated anti-polio drive by administering polio vaccine to children at the Mian Mir Hospital here on Monday. During the seven-day drive starting from Oct 02 to 08, as many as two million children under five years of age would be administrated anti-polio drops and for this purpose, 6404 teams had been formed. Talking on the occasion, DC Rafia Haider said that Union Council Monitoring Officers and Area In-charges would perform duties in the field to make polio drive a success.
