17.5 million to be immunised three-day national anti-polio campaign kicks off

Speakers at the inaugural ceremony of three-day national anti-polio campaign, held at Children Hospital here Monday, said eradication of polio is a collective responsibility of the government and society. "There will remain threat of polio until even a single case of it exists in the country," they said.
Speaking on the occasion, Member National Assembly, Naseer Ahmad Bhutta said that a disease-free society is the vision of Chief Minister Punjab, Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif for which he is striving hard. "It is the utmost desire of the chief minister to provide equal health facilities to all citizens. Polio is a crippling disease and people have to struggle jointly to eradicate it," he said.
Expressing his views, DG Health Punjab, Dr Muhammad Aslam Chaudhry revealed that due to the specific conditions in northern areas, a number of children are deprived of polio drops during every anti-polio campaign, terming this one of the basic reasons of existence of the disease in the country.
He informed that health department has arranged polio drops for more than 17.5 million children up to five years of age. For this purpose, 38,000 vaccination teams have been constituted to go door to door for administering the drops, he added.