DI KHAN: The three-day anti-polio campaign was kicked off here Monday to administering oral polio vaccine to around 270,000 children aged upto five years, across the district.
"Elaborate arrangements were made to prevent children from the crippling disease of polio through administration of anti polio drops," told District Health Officer(DHO) Dr Omar Shah media persons.
He said over 600 teams had been constituted including mobile and fixed teams to give polio drops to children at houses or other places including bus terminals, exit and entry points and markets.
He said the district was divided in union councils to be visited by trained teams to vaccinate the targeted population of children in those areas.
As part of efforts to reach out to maximum children, the official said, the door-to-door campaign was widely publicized to create awareness among the parents regarding the polio vaccination.
However, he was of the view it was not a job of a single individual but all of us should shoulder responsibility to make the campaign successful by ensuring that no single child missed the vaccination," the official observed.
He said the government and its partners in the campaign were struggling hard to make all cities including Dera Ismail Khan polio-free, however, he was of the view that general public and local communities' support was a must to achieve the objective.
He informed that follow up activities were also carried out to provide the polio drops to the left out children and create awareness among parents regarding polio drops.
He also said special arrangements had been made with a focus to administer anti-polio drops to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of South and North Waziristan. The official said strategy had been adopted including advocacy to convince parents who denied polio drops to their children and these cases were gradually being addressed in a successful manner, he added.
He said all concerned departments were extending their services to make the drive successful with a wider coverage and the police personnel were playing their effective part to guard polio teams especially while visiting remote areas.
He added the concerned officials of the health department had been directed to provide maximum facilities to the parents, enabling them to get administered polio drops to their children, conveniently.
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