150 SSU commandos guarding polio teams

Keeping up with the security measures for the six-day polio eradication drive, 150 Special Security Unit Commandos would be providing security to teams in sensitive areas of the city. 

The commandos have been deployed under the directives of SSU Commandant Sindh Police Maqsood Ahmed to ensure that the drive is not hampered by any unforeseen event. He also urged parents to cooperate with workers and allow them to administer polio drops to children. 

Earlier this year in April, seven policemen guarding health workers were shot in two attacks in Orangi Town. 

On Monday, the Sindh chief minister inaugurated a six-day province-wide polio vaccination drive 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.