Polio drive aiming to reach seven million children begins tomorrow

The Emergency Operation Centre for Polio in Sindh will launch a polio campaign that will run from November 12 to 19 in all districts of Karachi and 18 districts of the interior of Sindh.

The target population for this campaign is above seven million children under five years of age, and 2.3 million of them reside in Karachi. More than 50,000 frontline workers, including team members and area incharges, will take part in this campaign.

In Karachi alone, there are 9,000 community health workers supported by 2,300 area incharges who will go door to door to give polio drops to children. They will be given security cover by about 5,000 law enforcers.

The case count for Sindh in 2018 is one. However, a total of eight cases have been reported from across the country this year.

The newly appointed coordinator for the Emergency Operation Centre, Umar Farooq Bullo, said: “There has been more than 99 per cent reduction in polio cases since 2014 and there has been great progress in programme implementation in Sindh and Pakistan; however, environment samples are positive and therefore we must maintain the momentum and keep vaccinating children to save them from polio.”

In 2014 there were 306 cases of polio across the country, in 2015there were 54, in 2016 the number fell to 20, and to eight in 2017.

In the province of Sindh there were 30 polio cases in 2014 as compared to two cases in 2017, both from Karachi. Northern Sindh has not reported any polio case in more than two years. The case count of eight in Pakistan and two in Sindh in 2017 is a historical low for both the country and the province.

Coordinator Bullo said, “We have reduced cases through intensive polio drives, but we are facing refusals because of repeated vaccination. We would like to take this opportunity to inform the masses that repeated vaccination is necessary for polio eradication and to ensure children are safe from polio.”

The Pakistan Pediatric Association and medical experts recommend that every child must take two drops of the vaccine every time the vaccine is offered. In order to save their children from polio, parents must vaccinate them with two drops of the polio vaccine during every campaign.

The creation of emergency operation centres in the provinces have gone a long way in improving the programme as all partners involved in polio eradication work as one team and sit under one roof. In Karachi, the community-based vaccination initiative is bearing fruit as educated women that are local to the neighborhoods they work in are leading vaccination drives. Under the leadership of the Sindh government and the active role being played by the chief minister and the health minister, the programme is now reaching more children than ever before.

The districts where the polio drive will take place include Karachi (all districts), Thatta, Badin, Sujawal, Hyderabad, Dadu, Jamshoro, Matiari, Larkana, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Kamber, Kashmore, Sanghar, Naushero Feroz, Sukkur, Ghotki and Khairpur.