Sindh health minister for achieving 100pc polio target

DADU: Sindh Minister for Health Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho on Thursday emphasised to achieve 100 percent target during the upcoming anti-polio campaign being initiated in all the districts of Hyderabad division.

The minister chaired a meeting in Hyderabad, which was attended by the deputy commissioners and district health officers of the Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions regarding the upcoming anti-polio campaign.

The provincial health minister directed the DHOs to update the micro plan to ensure 100 percent administration of polio drops, particularly in the low performing union councils. She also underlined the need to cover polio refusal cases and devise an effective strategy in this regard.

She expressed concerns over the low coverage rate in the remote areas, including the union councils of Mirpurkhas, Sujawal, Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Badin and Thatta districts, and asked the concerned officers to devise a plan of involving the local people to get the 100 percent coverage targets. She said that no negligence would be tolerated during the anti-polio campaign, asking the health department officials to make all out efforts for making 2022, a polio-free year. Not a single child should be left without administering the polio drops, she added.

She also directed the officials to deploy polio teams at all the railway stations, so that no child could be left without being administered polio drops. She said that the local people should be hired to convince the reluctant parents in the remote areas, where the polio teams face issues in administering the polio drops to the children.

The meeting was attended by Parliamentary Secretary for Health Qasim Soomro, Hyderabad Division Commissioner Muhammad Abbas Baloch, DCs and DHOs of Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions.