Chief Secretary (CS) Sindh Dr Muhammad Sohail Rajput has said that after the emergence of polio cases in the country, every child entering the province would be vaccinated against the polio virus.
He made these remarks while presiding over a review meeting on the polio campaign on Friday at Sindh Secretariat. The meeting was attended by Commissioner Karachi Muhammad Iqbal Memon, Provincial Coordinator for Emergency Operations Center Fayyaz Abbasi, EOC Sindh Core team members, all Deputy Commissioners of Karachi and Hyderabad, representatives of UNICEF, WHO, and others.
Provincial Coordinator for Emergency Operations Center Fayyaz Abbasi in the meeting said that a special campaign will be launched in Karachi and Hyderabad division and other high-risk districts of Sindh from 27th June. He said that 10 cases of poliovirus have been reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.In the campaign starting on Monday, 3.3 million children of High-Risk Union Councils of Karachi, Hyderabad, and other districts of Sindh will be vaccinated against poliovirus and more than 30,000 polio workers will take part in the campaign. Mr. Fayyaz Abbasi further added that Larkana, Sukkur, and Shaheed Benazirabad will also launch a special polio campaign in selected High-risk UCs on 29th June.
Fayyaz Abbasi further said that in the last campaign more than 385,000 children were vaccinated against the polio virus at the transit point of the province out of which 9010 children belonged to South KP. In the meeting, Chief Secretary Sindh Dr Muhammad Sohail Rajput said that all the children entering the province should be vaccinated against polio. “Though no case of poliovirus has been reported in Sindh for last 2 years we have to be more vigilant as population comes to Sindh from other provinces of the country and also from these affected areas of South KPK.
The Chief Secretary Sindh directed Commissioner Karachi to persuade the refusing parents to be vaccinated during the special campaign and also to engage the community and civil society of such parents in this regard. He asked all the Deputy Commissioners to monitor the polio campaign in the respective districts and inaugurate the campaign along with the political and social personalities there.
