Year’s first polio drive in Sindh commences

The first polio campaign of 2018 was launched in all districts of Sindh, except Karachi, on Monday. Approximately 6.3 million children will be administrated anti-polio drops during this drive. The first polio drive of the year in Karachi will run from January 22 till 26, with an aim to cover approximately 2.3 million children.

A total of 56,000 teams will take part in the polio drives across Sindh, apart from 12,000 teams that will be deployed in Karachi. Around 5,000 police personnel will be deployed in Karachi for security.

The Emergency Operation Centre for Polio in Sindh has launched the first polio campaign for four days and approximately 44,000 teams will take part in it and 6.3 million children under five years of age will be vaccinated.

The five-day campaign will be kicked off in Karachi from January 22, while 12,000 teams will take part in the drive and approximately 5,000 police personnel will be providing security.

A total of eight polio cases were reported in Pakistan in 2017 out of which two were from Karachi. This is a historical low for the country and the province, said EOC Sindh Coordinator Fayaz Jatoi. “We have come a long way to achieve historically low cases but more work needs to be done and we must improve further,” he said.

“The teams must continue their hard work and parents must come forward to vaccinate their children to save them from the scourge of polio. No child should suffer from a vaccine preventable disease and it is our collective responsibility to make sure all children are vaccinated so that we have a healthy future for our generations.”