At least 1.3 million children below the age of five will be vaccinated against crippling polio virus during a three-day anti-polio campaign in Balochistan starting Monday (today).
Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) Balochistan Coordinator Dr Saifur Rehman said the drive would target 12 districts of the province, including high-risk areas.
He said that 395 fixed and 210 transit points had been established where 3,619 polio workers would vaccinate over 1.3 million children.
Dr Rehman said that for curbing the transmission of polio virus at transit points, they had been focusing on Pak-Afghan friendship gate where children under the age of 10 years would also be administrated with polio vaccine.
Talking about the security arrangements during the campaign, in-charge emergency operation center said that strict security measure have been taken to prevent any untoward incident, “Frontier Corps and Pakistan Army would be deployed in sensitive areas of the province during anti-polio drive,” he added.
Citing the by-polls in District Jhal Magsi Dr. Saif-Ur-Rehman said, anti-polio campaign in Jhal Magsi will start on May 3 because of the by election of National Assembly seat where 31,000 children would be vaccinated against polio virus.
“In Qilla Saifullah, Qilla Abdullah, Naseerabad, Jaffarabad, Pishin, Loralai, Dera Buti, Pishin,Lasbela, Sherani, Quetta, Zhob and other parts of the province the polio drive would be commenced as per announced dates,” he said.
Referring to the IPV programme, he said the IPV programme remained successful across the province particularly in high-risk districts where more than 240,000 children had been injected against the crippling polio virus.
He urged the media and religious scholars to play their vital role and encourage parents to administrate their children with polio drops.
Speaking on the occasion, UNICEF’s polio team leader Dr. Jawahir Habib said that struggle against polio virus would remain continue until the diseases is completely wiped-out from the province.
