Campaign launched to vaccinate 3.3m children against polio

The polio eradication unit in Sindh on Monday launched a province-wide polio vaccination campaign targeting vaccination of over three million children under five years in 17 districts of Sindh. The drive will last less than a week.

Sindh Health and Population Welfare Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho formally inaugurated the campaign at a ceremony at the Al-Suffa Dispensary in Islamia Colony of Site Town. Sindh Chief Secretary Dr Sohail Rajput, Emergency Operation Centre Sindh Coordinator Fayaz Abbasi, Deputy Commissioner District West Ghulam Qadir Talpur and others attended the ceremony.

“Pakistan is one of the two polio-endemic countries in the world along with Afghanistan and has so far reported a total of 11 polio cases in 2022,” said the health minister. “Our teams are being extra vigilant, and it is extremely crucial for us to reach our vaccination targets to make sure that the virus does not enter Sindh, for which the polio teams have been deployed at all transit sites of the province to ensure that all the children up to the age of five travelling to and from the province are given oral polio drops,” she added.

The health officials briefed the ceremony that over 3.3 million children under five years would be administered polio drops during this campaign. Of the targeted children, 2.4 million live in the seven districts of Karachi.

Dr Azra urged the people of Sindh to focus on childhood immunisation to prevent childhood diseases as she explained the benefits of vaccination. “Children can be saved from childhood diseases like polio through vaccination and we seek the media’s help to raise awareness regarding this,” she stated and added that the polio vaccine was the safest and most effective way to save the children from the crippling disease.