A four-day anti-polio campaign would start in Rawalpindi district from July 16 under which 695,000 children up to five years of age would be vaccinated. Duty roasters of the staff of the health department, teaching hospitals, agriculture and education departments would be issued immediately after the lists of the staff were received from the respective departments. This was disclosed at a meeting held here on Wednesday which was chaired by District Coordination Officer (DCO) Rawalpindi, Saqib Zafar. The meeting was attended among others by Executive District Officer (EDO) Health Dr. Zafar Iqbal Gondal, District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Khalid Randhawa, Additional Medical Superintendent (AMS), DHQ hospital Dr Muhammad Suleman, DMS, BBH Dr. Hanif Pasha, DSP (HQ) Tahir Sikandar, EDO Education Qazi Zahoor-ul-Haq and representatives of various NGOs and other departments. The DCO directed the education department to provide at least 400 teachers to perform duties during this campaign and no negligence in this regard would be tolerated. He said private schools’ administration should also be directed to provide the required staff for the campaign otherwise their licenses would be cancelled. He also directed the health department’s officials to be vigilant particularly in those areas where polio virus was found last year. EDO (H) Dr. Zafar Iqbal Gondal and DHO Dr Khalid Randhawa briefed the meeting about the steps taken by the health department to make this campaign successful.
