KARACHI: A six-day anti-polio campaign is being launched in Karachi from Wednesday (today), which will continue till 25 December 2017. Under the drive, 1.85 million children below five years of age will be administrated polio drops.
Approximately 3,500 front line workers and supervisors will take part in the campaign and 4500 police personnel will be providing them security cover.
In addition, rangers will also be patrolling the areas where the campaign is taking place. Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for Polio in Sindh’s Coordinator Fayaz Jatoi said that the campaign was extremely important as recently there was a polio case from UC 4 Gadap.
He said that the situation was getting better but they must keep up the intensity of vaccination to safeguard children and rid Karachi of the polio virus.
“I appeal to parents to come forward and vaccinate their children, and those who refuse vaccination must stop doing that because refusing to vaccinate will put their children in danger of contracting the virus.
Polio has no cure but it can only be prevented by giving two drops of the polio vaccine during every campaign.” Speaking about progress in 2017, Jatoi pointed out that Sindh had reported two polio cases in 2017 (both from Karachi) as opposed to eight cases in 2016 which showed that the province had come a long way. We must keep focus on Karachi and interrupt virus transmission, he said.
Similarly in Pakistan, so far eight cases of polio have been recorded and this too is a historical low. Earlier, the polio campaign was also launched in other areas of Sindh which include Dadu, Ghotki, Jaccobabad, Kambar, Kashmore, Larkana, Shikarpur, Sukkur, Badin, Hyderabad, Kherpur, Matiari, N. Feroz, Sanghar, Sajawal, Thatta and Jamshoro.
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