Nationwide anti-polio drive starts

Islamabad
The Prime Minister’s focal person on polio eradication Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq monitored the conduct of the nationwide polio immunisation campaign, which kicked off here on Monday, by visiting various urban and slum areas of Islamabad. Over 35 million children in 163 districts of the country will be vaccinated during the campaign, in which 200,000 polio workers are participating.
Ayesha specially checked the monitoring system of the campaign and issued standing directives for zero tolerance over negligence. “Our priority is to reach out to each and every child so that no child remains unvaccinated during this nationwide polio drive,” Ayesha maintained during her monitoring visit.
“Nine campaigns have been planned during the period between September 2015 to May 2016, and every campaign is critically important to stop poliovirus transmission,” Ayesha added. Given the importance of Islamabad, she issued directives to CDA’s Health Directorate to improve the surveillance system in line with the indicators mentioned in the National Emergency Action Plan. “The Emergency Operation Centre is available to extend an all-out support to provinces and areas in running a smooth campaign,” she added.
Earlier, Ayesha also visited the peripheral areas of Islamabad to monitor door-to-door conduct of the campaign. Dr. Hassan Orooj, Director Health Services briefed her on the arrangements made for a successful campaign. Data shared by CDA’s Health Directorate include vaccination target of approximately 2.9 lakh children. Vitamin A will also be administered to eligible children during the campaign. Around 27,000 doses of blue capsules (for infants aged 6-11 months) and 0.21 million doses of red capsules (for children aged 12-59 months) will accordingly be administered in Islamabad.
Ayesha interacted with the polio teams and parents during her field visit to boost their morale and convince them to actively participate in the campaigns. She monitored the performance of the vaccination staff and also interacted with community elders to stress upon them to play their required role in community mobilization for vaccination.