Three-day national anti polio campaign will begin throughout the country from August 24 and will continue till August 26.
According to the Expanded Programme for Immunisation (EPI) sources government had set a target of 35 million children under five years of age to be immunised by anti-polio drops in all parts of the country including Fata Fana and Azad Kashmir.
Federal Health Ministry and Provincial Health departments in collaboration with World Health Organisation (WHO) and Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) will actively participate in this campaign.
Federal Health Minister, Muhammad Nasir Khan in a statement said that polio teams would go door to door for administering anti-polio drops to all children under five-year of age during the three-day campaign.
He said that it was a moment of joy and happiness that in Balochistan and Punjab no polio case was reported while in other parts of the country the prevalence rate was record low.
He said that over 70,000 teams of health workers had been constituted by the health departments of all the four provinces, AJK and FANA to administered anti-polio drops to the children under five.
The minister has appealed to parents to ensure that their children under five years of age are vaccinated during the campaign.
In case of miss out they could take their children to the nearest Vaccination Centre, Hospital or Basic Health Unit and administer them anti-polio drops, he said.
He also urged elected representatives at all District, Tehsil and Union Council levels should extend full co-operation in the success of the polio eradication programme and particularly asked the women representatives to help in implementation of the campaign.
He showed satisfaction over the implementation earlier campaigns as a result of which only 19 cases of polio have been identified during the current calendar year.
He said that it was a multi-sectoral effort of the government, WHO, Unicef and the donor community to give vaccine to children of Pakistan below five years of age.
Health Ministry officials told APP that 150,000 special polio vaccination centres had been set up throughout the country where nearly 500,000 people including doctors, paramedics, teachers, girl guides, boy scouts, Imam Masajid and members of different voluntary organisations would administer anti-polio vaccine.
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