- Rawalpindi to have two-week long anti-measles drive from Oct 15
RAWALPINDI: The District Health Authority on Sunday reported to have achieved polio vaccination target set for the entire district under a five-day campaign which concluded on Thursday.
Over 840,000 children, below five years age, were administered anti-polio drops during the campaign, said Dr Khalid Mehmood, chief executive officer of the authority. About 2739 teams, including 2333 mobile health teams, 496 area in-charges in 287 fixed points and 119 transit points and 221 union council medical officers participated in the drive to complete the task of immunization.
He said that he himself monitored the campaign and visited various areas to inspect the working of polio teams. On the other hand, a two-week long anti-measles drive would commence from October 15 to 27 while 884 teams would go door-to-door and administer an anti-measles injection to 874,384 children from six months to seven years of age in all tehsils and union councils.
District Health Authority focal person Dr Zeeshan Ahmed said that 221 fixed centres, 208 medical officers, 1768 mobilizers and 52 supervisers would be part of the drive in order to facilitate the citizens and serve them at their doorsteps. He said that seminars would also be held at tehsil and district level to create awareness among the parents about the disease.
He said that the WHO, UNICEF and the Melinda Bill Gates Foundation were jointly sponsoring the anti-measles drive. He said the staff deployed for the campaign has been issued special instructions and informed that no negligence in this regard would be tolerated. He said that sufficient quantity of vaccine was available, and no stone would be left unturned in efforts to make the campaign a success.