Week-long citywide polio vaccination drive to begin on 20th

Karachi Commissioner Navid Ahmed Shaikh, who is also the head of the Commissioner Karachi Task Force for Polio, has decided to start a seven-day anti-polio campaign on September 20.

Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) Sindh Coordinator Fayaz Jatoi, deputy commissioners of all seven districts, senior officials of the provincial health department and world partners for polio briefed the commissioner about the progress and future plan for polio eradication on Thursday.

The meeting was told that all environmental samples that were analysed for polio by the relevant health experts tested negative. These samples were collected from all seven districts in the city.

The meeting was also told that testing samples taken from sewage is the basic parameter that helps determine if an anti-polio campaign has been successful. The commissioner appreciated the joint efforts being made by the district commissioners, the EOC, the health department and the world partners for the eradication of the polio virus in the city.

He said that negative environmental samples is good news. Another good news mentioned in the meeting was that for the past one year no polio case has been reported in the city. Some 2.3 million children up to the age of five years will be administered polio drops in the week-long anti-polio drive, in which over 23,000 polio workers and supervisors will perform their duties to administer the vaccine to the children.

The commissioner asked the DCs to ensure that the Covid-19 standard operating procedures are complied with, so that the polio vaccination drive does not affect the government’s efforts to implement the precautionary measures being taken against the spread of the coronavirus.

The meeting was also attended by Additional Commissioner-II Jawad Muzaffar, Assistant Commissioner General Aijaz Hussain Rind, representatives of the World Health Organisation, Unicef, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Programme Officer Dr Erin Stuckey) and others.