SAHIWAL – A three-day anti-polio campaign will be launched in district Sahiwal from March 7 to administer polio vaccine to more than 400,000 children below five years of age. The health department has chalked out a comprehensive plan to reach every child for which 940 teams have been constituted for the door-to-door national campaign.
A meeting was held in this regard under the chairmanship of District Coordination Officer (DCO) Waqas Ali Mahmood to finalise the plan.
The meeting was also attended by Executive District Officer Revenue Dr Usman Ali Khan, Health District Officer Dr Shahid Nazir and other officers of the departments concerned. The DCO directed the health department to involve teachers, clerics and notables from the area to make this campaign a success and urged the officials that no child should be left unattended.
He also directed the revenue department to assist and counter-check the campaign and mobilise the parents and local community for this noble cause so that children could be saved from this deadly disease. The meeting was told that the entire district had been divided into 30 zones for which mobile teams have been assigned the respective areas for visiting every house to administer anti-polio vaccine to children.
It was also informed that 144 polio cases had been reported in Pakistan last year. He called the situation alarming, but added there was no case reported in district Sahiwal.