Anti-polio drive starts today in three dists

LAHORE: The Punjab Polio Programme is all set to hold a special anti-polio campaign using the injectable polio vaccine in three districts of the province from Monday (today), a polio programme spokesperson confirmed on Sunday.

The campaign will be held in 113 selected union councils of Lahore, DG Khan and Rajanpur, said the spokesperson. Seeing polio epidemiology, 87 UCs of Lahore have been made part of the campaign. While 16 UCs of DG Khan and 10 UCs of Rajanpur have been included in the special campaign.

Punjab reported 14 polio cases in 2020 so far. The prevalence of polio virus has also been proven in almost all polio environment sampling sites. The polio campaigns were halted from the third week of March to mid-July. The halt allowed virus to spread in the province. Since the halt in campaigns, Punjab has seen increased incidence of children falling prey to the polio virus. If the immunity of children is not built, the virus will have devastating impact on the lives and health of children leaving them vulnerable in the time to come.

So, the government of Punjab has planned this special campaign in selected union councils of Lahore, DG Khan and Rajanpur in which all the children between 4 and 59 months of age will be provided one dose of fractional IPV free of cost, said the spokesperson.

In her statement, head of the polio programme, Ms Sundas Irshad said IPV is given through an injection by a trained vaccinator at the designated health facility or health facility camp.

“IPV together with the OPV is the best combination to boost immunity in the gut. This means that not only individual children are better protected from polio virus, but also it means that they are less infectious towards other children and the community is better protected against polio”, she added. “Children should continue to receive OPV whenever it is offered. Extra doses of OPV will only strengthen the child’s immunity against polio”, the head of the polio programme said.