Polio campaign begins today: Over 20m children to be immunised

LAHORE:The first National Immunisation Days (NID) polio campaign commences in Punjab on Monday (today).

In Lahore, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad, the campaign will continue for seven days, with two days dedicated to reaching Not Available children. In the rest of the province, the NIDs will last five days, also with two of these earmarked to reaching Not Available children.

More than 199,000 polio workers will participate in the drive to immunise 20.54 million children under the age of five against polio. This includes 16,292 area in-charges, 3951 union council supervisors, 84579 mobile team members, 4,853 fixed team members and 2,652 transit team members.

Punjab Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) has deployed officials from all areas to facilitate implementation of the polio campaign in priority areas. “Although Punjab is free of polio case since October 2020, but as long as polio exists anywhere, it is a threat to children everywhere”, said Emergency Operations Centre Coordinator and head of the polio programme in Punjab Khizer Afzaal in a statement on Sunday.

The EOC head acknowledged that positive environmental samples from mega cities have been of concern and cautioned that the presence of virus in sewage samples must send an urgent message to parents to ensure that children were administered two polio drops under every immunisation drive. Recounting the steps taken to eradicate polio, the EOC coordinator reaffirmed that Punjab government had prioritised tracking and vaccination of Not Available children with focus on very high-risk mega districts of Faisalabad, Lahore and Rawalpindi. During the NIDs, Punjab has set up transit vaccination points to immunise cross-border and inter-provincial populations in efforts to eradicate polio,” the EOC head said urging parents to cooperate with the transit teams.

Children suffer paralysis in areas where routine immunization rates remain critically low. Multiple doses of polio drops offer the best protection against the virus. Every single child needs to be vaccinated in order achieve population immunity and prevent virus circulation if we are to eradicate polio. Parents must realise that immunisation is a safe and effective means of safeguarding their children against this virus”, the head of the polio programme underlined, he said.

Meanwhile, more than 1,200 police officers and officials have been deployed for the security of six thousand 360 polio workers. According to a spokesperson for the police, security cover has been provided to the polio workers in 169 union councils of the city including 37 UCs of City Division, 17 of Civil Lines, 33 of Model Town, 23 of Sadar, 19 of Iqbal Town whereas 40 Union Councils of the Cantt Division.

CCPO Ghulam Mahmood Dogar said 498 motorcycles and 83 vehicles of the police stations have been doing effective patrolling in the polio campaign areas. The CCPO warned that no compromise would be made on the security of the anti-polio teams. The campaign would continue to January 22 in the provincial capital during which around two million children would be administered anti polio vaccine.