Year’s first polio drive launched: Parents urged to protect children from disability

KARACHI: Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho inaugurated the year’s first seven-day polio vaccination drive by administering oral polio vaccine (OPV) drops to children as part of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) in Karachi, and urged the parents to get their children under the age of five vaccinated against the crippling disease whenever a vaccinator knocked on their door.

“Polio drops can protect the children from permanent disability, so I would urge all the parents to get their children under the age of five to vaccinate against polio,” she said while inaugurating the drive, during which around nine million children would be administered OPV drops in the 29 districts of the province.

The EOC has launched the province-wide polio campaign that will run from January 11 to January 17, 2021. “This is the first campaign of 2021 in which polio drops will be given to approximately nine million children under five years of age across the 29 districts of the province,” Dr Pechuho said.

Of these nine million children, more than two million live in Karachi, and in order to boost immunity, children from six to 59 months of age will also be provided vitamins A drops.Pakistan is one of the two polio-endemic countries in the world along with Afghanistan and it reported a total of 84 polio cases in 2020, of which 22 were from Sindh.