KARACHI: Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for polio in Sindh would launch a province-wide polio campaign from June 7 to June 13, as part of the sub national immunization days to give oral polio drops to over 9 million children of under 5-year across the province.

The campaign would be conducted in all 30 districts of Sindh and out of the target of over 9 million children, more than 2 million reside in Karachi, said a spokesperson of EOC Sindh on Sunday.

The campaign would be conducted whilst following strict WHO recommended Covid prevention protocols which include the wearing of masks by workers, their temperatures being checked before deployment, not handling children directly, not entering houses, spending limited time with families and knocking on doors with pens, rulers or elbows rather than hands.

As a result of the pandemic, the gap in campaigns from March to July coupled with routine immunization being affected left an immunity gap in children which we have been addressing through back-to-back monthly polio campaigns since August 2020.

Spokesperson EOC Sindh informed that thanks to these campaigns Sindh has not reported a single case of polio since July 2020 and environment samples were also now showing a negative trend which was good for the programme and the future of the children of Pakistan.

If we continue with the same momentum, we would further see significant results but we must not get complacent and continue the hard work. We understand that communities in the super high risk UCs for polio need other services and we were addressing this through new initiatives. We have opened water filtration plants, experimental dispensaries, model EPI centres, mother and child health facilities among other initiatives.

During the polio campaign this time we would have health camps across super high-risk UCs to cater to the healthcare needs of communities, especially women and children.