As many as 545,198 children under the age of five years will be given polio vaccine during the immunisation campaign starting on September 30.
Additional District Collector Amjad Bashir said that the children missed in the three day campaign would be vaccinated in the second phase on October 3 and October 4.
Bashir said the officials concerned from the district government had met several times in the month to review arrangements for the campaign.
He said that mobile health teams had been formed for door-to-door visits.
Presiding over a meeting earlier, Health Executive District Officer Ihsanullah Warraich said that health workers must play their role in creating awareness among parents. He said parents must be informed about the repercussions of missing immunisation.
“They have to be told that polio is an incurable disease which leaves the affected child disabled for life.”
Stating recent World Health Organisation reports, the EDO said that 250 children had been diagnosed with polio in 2012 and 2013 so far. Of these, he said, 27 cases had been reported from Pakistan. He said two children were diagnosed with polio in the Punjab.
Rao Zakir Ali, the focal person for the polio campaign, said that 1,284 teams had been formed for this drive. Of these, he said, 1,019 were mobile teams and 145 stationed. Another 105 teams had been directed to immunise children on bus stands, railway station and toll plazas, while another 15 teams would give vaccination to children in the markets. He said that 226 workers had been appointed as area in charge, 108 as union council medical officers and six as tehsil supervisors.
