KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said polio has been eradicated from the whole world except Pakistan and Afghanistan; therefore, we as a nation have to join hands and resolve to eradicate this crippling disease from our country.
This expressed these views through a video message released here from the CM House on the occasion of opening anti-polio vaccination drive on Saturday. The inauguration ceremony was attended by Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shahalwani, Adl IG Karachi Ghulam Nabi Memon, Secretary Health Kazim Jatoi, EOC Coordinator Fayaz Abbasi, Dr Altaf Bosan of TLF Islamabad, Dr Shaukat Chandio of UNICEF, Dr Zara of WHO, Dr Raj Kumar DHO South and others.
Murad Ali Shah with a heavy heart said "This is a crippling disease and cripples would children, but sorry to most of the parents do not cooperate with the government to administer polio drops to their children," he said and added this year 64 cases of polio have been detected from Pakistan, of them 21 belonged to province of Sindh.
The chief minister urged people of the province to cooperate with the polio teams which would visit them under their `door-to-door' campaign to administer polio drops to under-five-year children. "We all have to join hands to eradicate polio to save our children from physical disability," he said and urged parents to administer polio vaccines to their children under Covid-19 SOPs.
The chief minister launched anti-polio campaign by giving polio drops to some children here at CM House and also administering them the Vitamin-A drops to strengthen their immunity level.
Following the Covid-19 SOPs, the chief minister personally sanitized the hands of the children whom he gave polio and vitamin A drops and let wore them masks.
The Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for Polio in Sindh has started a province-wide Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) campaign from 15 to 21 Aug.
The campaign will take place in all 29 districts of Sindh with a total target population of 9.2 million children under 5 years of age. In addition to OPV, 8.3 million children from six months to five years of age will also be given Vitamin A drops to boost their immunity levels. A total of 49,781 polio workers and 8,497 area supervisors will be deployed in the province for house to house vaccination.
All Covid-19 prevention SOPs will be followed during the campaign which includes checking of workers temperature before being deployed, use of hand sanitizers, workers will not handle the children directly and will knock on doors using a pen or ruler rather than their hands.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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