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Thursday March 28, 2024

Second phase of polio drive starts in eight districts  

By our correspondents
March 22, 2017

The Emergency Operations Centre for Polio (EOC) Sindh has launched the second phase of the Injectable Polio Vaccine (IPV) campaign in eight districts of northern parts of the province. 

An official of the EOC Sindh on Tuesday said the campaign started on March 20 and would continue till March 28 in eight districts, namely Dadu, Jacobabad, Kambar, Kashmore, Khairpur, Larkana, Shikarpur and Sukkur.

As many as 81,4755 children from four to 23 months of age will be administered polio injections, while 992,982 children under five years of age will receive the oral polio vaccine (OPV drops).

Sindh EOC coordinator Fayaz Jatoi said people must be aware that IPV was not a replacement for OPV but instead it would further boost children’s immunity against polio and protect them against the virus. Parents must give OPV to their children, he added.

He appealed to the media to spread awareness and requested the parents to cooperate with polio teams and come forward to vaccinate their children.

Only two cases of polio in Pakistan have surfaced in 2017, while no such case has been reported in Sindh.

Jatoi said there had been a massive reduction in polio cases and a lot of improvement from previous years.” We cannot rest until the virus is completely eliminated as there is always a chance of it springing up.”

He also appealed to the health officials and ground teams to put in an extra effort over the next few campaigns. “We have a golden opportunity to eradicate the virus as shown by the decline in cases across the country from previous years.”

There were more than 300 cases of polio in Pakistan in 2014, as many as 54 in 2015 and 20 in 2016 which means that more than 80 percent reduction has been recorded, Jatoi said, adding that despite the massive headway, there was a need to maintain the good work.

“Children of Pakistan are the future of the country and we must do our part in securing them a better future which is our collective responsibility,” he said.

Jatoi urged people to get their children vaccinated so that the menace of polio could be eradicated from the country for once and all.