Polio vaccination drive from tomorrow

LAHORE : All is set for second national immunisation drive of the year against polio starting all over Pakistan including Punjab from Monday (tomorrow), Punjab polio programme confirmed here on Saturday.

The national drive will continue for five days till April 2.

The polio programme has constituted over 48,000 teams who will go every household to vaccinate children. As per the handout issued by the polio programme, delivery of vaccine to all districts of Punjab has been completed.

The districts have also been provided huge quantities of masks and sanitisers to prevent workers from Covid-19.

Polio teams will vaccinate more than 20 million children five years of age during the campaign.

The polio programme has constituted 5,000 teams in Lahore alone who will provide polio eradication drops to over 1.9 million children in the City.

In her statement head of the polio programme Ms Sundas Irshad said the polio campaign will help control virus transmission.

“Despite the current Covid-19 pandemic, the government will ensure that polio virus transmission is broken,” the head of the polio programme reaffirmed.

Ms Irshad pledged to go to every district to monitor the performance of various cadres of polio teams involved in campaign. "Next few months are very important to break polio virus transmission," Ms Sundas said. "In order to ensure that high quality campaigns are conducted and no child remains without vaccine, I will personally visit every district," the head of the polio programme pledged.

"Missed children are vulnerable to the polio virus and at the same time run risk of carrying it to other parts of the province. So the parents must always vaccinate their children in polio campaigns", the head of the Punjab polio programme observed.

"No polio case has been reported in Punjab since five months but polio environmental samples indicate that virus is still circulating in major cities”, she disclosed.

“We cannot be complacent and let gains slips away after resumptions in polio campaigns which were suspended last year due to Covid-19”, the EOC coordinator underscored.

“I request all parents to not lend ears to fears and misconceptions and cooperate with polio teams in the national drive", she added.

The national drive, which will continue till April 2, is being held all over Pakistan with a resolve to eradicate polio from the country in the backdrop of renewed success as only one polio case has been reported this year so far from Balochistan.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries left which are polio-endemic.