Emergency Operation Center (EOC) Balochistan's Co-ordinator Dr. Syed Saif Ur Rehman has said three-day anti polio drive will be kicked off from Monday on July 25th in 137 union councils of Balochistan aimed administrating over half of million children of below the age of five years.
Providing the details of the anti-polio drive, Syed Saif Ur Rehman said as many as 1678 mobile teams, 122 teams at fixed points and 38 teams at transit points will be engaged during the campaign which is aimed administering anti polio drops to half a million children below the age of five.
Strict surveillance system has been adopted in all transit points, Co-ordinator EOC Balochistan Dr. Saif ur Rehman said and added polio teams will also be deployed in all Refugee camps.
Stressing upon on public cooperation, he said religious scholars across the province have assured the provincial government regarding their help and assistance to convince the parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated during the campaign. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where the polio virus is still endemic and paralysing children. In 2016, total 13 fresh polio cases have been reported in Pakistan while one polio case was reported from Balochistan.
A 30 months older Muhammad Ikram was found affected with Polio virus in February, 2016 at Samungli road Quetta. We have been fighting against the crippling disease and I am hopeful that Balochistan would be the first polio free province of the country, Dr. Saif said with confidence. Dr. Rehman has visited high risk areas like Zhob, Sherani, Chaman Loralai and other sensitive areas while local administration to monitor the preparation of the campaign. We had meetings with local health officials and administration to chalk out a strategy to reach every single child of the sensitive areas, Saif said.
The Health Department has directed all Deputy Commissioner to fully cooperate with polio teams and keep active the government machinery when it is needed, Talking on the security measure adopted for the three days anti-Polio drive Dr. Saif said, Police force and Frontier Corps soldiers would be deployed with polio teams across the province in order to thwart any possible untoward incident.
Polio teams have been frequently targeted in Balochistan by religious armed groups as they considered the polio drops a western conspiracy against controlling the population of Muslim world.
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