Six-day polio vaccination drive kicks off in Sindh

The Sindh chief minister inaugurated a six-day province-wide polio vaccination drive on Monday by administering oral polio vaccine to a child at the Sindh Government Hospital Ibrahim Hyderi on the occasion of the World Polio Day.

Accompanied by Health Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro, Emergency Operations Centre Sindh technical adviser Shahnaz Wazir Ali, EOC Sindh coordinator Fayyaz Jatoi and other officials, Murad Ali Shah said the polio vaccination drive was a national cause and he was committed to eradicating the disease from the province.

“I have taken ownership of the campaign and that’s why I have come here to launch the drive,” he said.

Around 8.3 million children under the age of five years will be administered polio vaccine drops in the entire province including around 2.2 million in Karachi.

Shah deplored that this year, 15 polio cases were reported in the country, five of them in Sindh - one each in Karachi, Jacobabad and Sajawal and two in Shikarpur.

“We are committed to bringing an end to this dreaded disease by launching extensive campaigns and taking necessary measures,” the chief minister said.

He urged the parents to have their children administered polio drops whenever vaccinators visited their homes.

Replying to a question, he brushed aside the impression of expired polio vaccines being used in the drives in the province.

“I am not a doctor but know very well that when a polio vaccine expires its colour changes and lady health workers have been properly trained to identify this,” he said. Replying to another question, the chief minister said a Provincial Finance Commission was being formed to release funds to local bodies for development activities in their respective areas.

“I have received a file for the PFC’s approval and I am personally working on forming it so that the necessary funds can be released to local bodies, however the provincial government has provided them enough funds,” he added.

“The issue of local councils, particularly that of the union councils and the district councils, is bank accounts. Once they open their accounts, the problem of transferring funds to them will be solved.”

The chief minister maintained that the chairpersons of educational boards would be appointed through search committees and expressed displeasure that heroin and other narcotics were openly being sold in Ibrahim Hyderi, Rehri Goth and Lath Basti.

The chief minister said that 84 doctors were posted at the Ibrahim Hyderi Hospital. Replying to a question, he said that everyone had the right to stage a protest but nobody could take the law in their hands. “The PPP believes in democratic norms and respects them,” he added.