Three-day anti-polio campaign from today

Islamabad :A three-day campaign against polio will begin in the federal capital today (Monday) targeting 800,000 children under the age of five years.

For the campaign, which is to last until July 13, the district administration has divided the city into 26 zones with each zone headed by a medical officer or a senior health professional from the health services department.

A total of 503 mobile teams will go from house to house to vaccinate children against polio, while 93 fixed teams and 44 transit teams have been formed to administer anti-polio drops to the children under five years of age at various bus stands, major roundabouts, shopping malls and medical centres.

With Islamabad being polio-free since September 2008, the relevant administration officials said persistent and dedicated efforts would be made to maintain that status. They said all available resources would be used to make the anti-polio campaign success.

During Ramazan, an effective anti-polio campaign was conducted in high-risk zones. The campaign was assessed by the World Health Organisation by taking four the lot quality assurance sampling samples, one from each zone. All the samples had tested negative for polio.