Polio drive begins in eight districts of Sindh

A six-day- long polio vaccination campaign began in eight districts of Sindh.

The eight districts where a ‘case response campaign’ is under way are: Shikarpur, Sukkur,Ghotki, Khairpur, Jacobabad, Kashmore, Larkana and Qambar. According to officials in the emergency operations centre (EOC) for polio in Sindh, a total of 2,460,323 children, aged up to five years, would be covered during the campaign which would continue for six days in addition to two days for a catch-up drive to target children who missed the main campaign.

“In fact, the campaign was being conducted in those eight districts of the province which have either produced polio cases or deemed potential sanctuary for the crippling disease,” the officials said, adding the districts where potential polio outbreak was feared in future have also been included in the drive to save children from the crippling disease.

It may be pointed out that Sindh has four polio cases, so far, this year — one in Karachi, one in Jacobabad and two in Shikarpur.The authorities have already been carrying out special campaigns in Karachi by engaging communities and religious personalities, besides deploying thousands of policemen for the protection of volunteers and officials.The officials said there had been more than 80 per cent reduction in polio cases, but “we must
continue the hard work to make Sindh and Pakistan polio free”.“Our vaccinators are going to brave the heat in the holy month of Ramazan to carry out this essential activity and that should be appreciated,” the official said.
He added that no child should fall victim to a disease that was easily preventable through vaccination.

The officials said there were still 12 high-risk districts that represented the final polio reservoirs in the country and those districts were the focus of the low transmission season that concluded last month.

Source: Medical News Pakistan