Anti-polio drive starts in Rawalpindi district

Rawalpindi
A three-day anti-polio drive under National Immunisation Day (NID), which was supposed to be launched last week, started in the district on Tuesday. It would be followed by a two-day mop-up activity on March 27 and 28.
The anti-polio drive under NID is launched all across the country and the activity has already been performed in all districts of the country from March 16 to 18 though it was postponed in twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi due to security reasons in connection with Pakistan Day Parade.
The provincial government directed the district health department to launch the anti-polio drive under NID from March 24 that would be concluded on March 28.
After delay of a week, the anti-polio drive has been launched in the district from Tuesday under which over 760,000 children below five years of age would be vaccinated against polio as is done under every NID campaign, said District Health Officer Dr. Rafiq Ahmed while talking to ‘The News’ on Tuesday.
The performance of the teams carrying out anti-polio drive would remain unaffected due to delay of the campaign as the health department has already taken special measures to further strengthen the coverage during the anti-polio drive, said the DHO while responding to a query.
He added that senior staff of the district health department in all seven tehsils of the district has been deputed to monitor performance of the teams carrying out anti-polio drive.
Rawalpindi district is considered as the high-risk district in the country regarding prevalence of poliovirus mainly because of its geographic location, however no case of polio has been reported here for the last four years and the health department would use all its efforts to maintain polio-free status of the district this year too, claimed Dr. Rafiq.
During the last two anti-polio drives in the district, the health department has come up with success in administering anti-polio vaccine to over 95 per cent of the children set as target and this time, we would try to attain the same level of coverage, he said.
It is important that the district health department has constituted over 1760 teams for administering anti-polio vaccine to over 760,000 children below five years of age in the district.
Over 1,400 mobile teams, 260 teams at fixed points and 95 transit teams have been carrying out activities during the on-going NID drive.