8.88m Sindh kids to be vaccinated in anti-polio drive kicking off today

As many as 8.88 million will be vaccinated against polio in all districts and union councils of Sindh from September 24 to 28 during a nationwide campaign.

Polio eradication officials said 38.6 million children would be given oral vaccines in Pakistan during the campaign, which was fully synchronised with Afghanistan to ensure effective vaccination of mobile children as well.

They added that Pakistan was closest ever to its goal and starting its final push towards the interruption of polio virus with the first nationwide door-to-door campaign. In 2018, only four polio cases have been reported from two districts, including three from the Dukki area of Balochistan and one from Charsadda in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The program will target a total of 38.6 million children under five -- 19.22 million in Punjab, 8.88 million in Sindh, 6.75 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (including tribal districts), 2.5 million in Balochistan, 0.7m in AJK, 0.237 million in GB and 0.33 million children in Islamabad.

It will be a three-day campaign with one to two days’ catch-up elsewhere and five days with two days’ catch-up in core reservoir areas. During this campaign, Vitamin-A supplement will also be administered to around 35 million children aged between 6-59 months along with OPV aimed at boosting immunity against all infectious diseases, including measles.

A total of 260,000 personnel will strive to achieve the set targets across Pakistan, including 26,169 area incharges, 7,958 UC medical officers, and 190,950 mobile, 10,271 fixed and 11,998 transit team members.

Considering significance of the campaign, the National EOC has deployed 40 experts to facilitate preparedness by the local teams in priority areas. The Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for Polio in Sindh said it would conduct a campaign from the 24th to 28th of September in all districts and union councils of the province.

The campaign has a target of 8.88 million children across the province, and 2.4 million of them are residing in Karachi. More than 56,000 frontline workers (teams and area incharges) will take part in the campaign (more than 12,000 in Karachi) while 5,000 police personnel will be providing security cover in Karachi.

The total case count for polio in 2017 was eight in Pakistan, out of which two cases were from Karachi in Sindh. This is a historical low for the country and the province. There has no case so far in Sindh in 2018, but there have been four polio cases in Pakistan, which are from Balochistan and KP. Sindh Minister for Health Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho will inaugurate the campaign at 8:45am at Jannat Gul Hospital, Sorab Goth, behind AL Asif Square along the Super Highway.