Anti-polio drive at bus terminals, railway stations in Sindh after Eid

As Pakistan reported a poliovirus case on April 22 in North Waziristan, the first in the country after a gap of 15 months, the Sindh government on Monday announced it would conduct a polio immunisation campaign at bus terminuses and railway stations in the province in May.

The decision was taken at a meeting held at the Sindh Secretariat. The meeting was jointly chaired by Chief Secretary Dr Muhammad Sohail Rajput and Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho.

The meeting decided to launch the vaccination drive at Karachi and Hyderabad toll plazas, inter-city bus terminuses in Jacobabad, Ghotki and Kashmore, and at railways stations. The chief secretary asked the deputy commissioners posted in various districts to conduct the campaign on a full-fledged basis to secure all their targets. He said that he would not tolerate any negligence in this regard.

The deputy commissioners said the government should adopt an effective strategy to overcome the challenge of administering polio drops to the children whose parents had refused to allow their children to be vaccinated against the disease.

In this regard, Dr Rajput constituted a three-member committee with the secretaries for home and health departments and Commissioner Karachi Muhammad Iqbal Memon as its members. Dr Pechuho said the immunisation campaign was being conducted in an effective manner in the province and no new polio cases had been reported in the province for the last two years. She appealed to the parents to extend cooperation to the volunteers of the campaign and grant permission to them to administer polio drops to their children who were up to the age of five years.

She said social mobilisers and social media influencers should be sought to persuade the parents who refused to administer polio drops to their children. The meeting was attended by the Karachi commissioner, Additional Inspector General of Karachi Police Ghulam Nabi Memon, home and health department secretaries, coordinator for polio emergency operation centre, World Health Organisation’s representatives and deputy commissioners.