KARACHI: The first-polio campaign of 2018 has been launched in all districts of Sindh province, except Karachi on Monday, where approximately 6.3 million children would be administrated anti-polio drops.
However, the first polio drive in Karachi will begin from January 22, continue till 26 January 2018 and will target approximately 2.3 million children.
A total of 56,000 teams will take part in polio drives in the province (12,000 in Karachi). Around 5000 police personnel will be deployed in Karachi for security cover
The Emergency Operation Centre for Polio in Sindh has launched the first polio campaign for four days and approximately 44,000 teams will take part in it, and 6.3 million children under five-years of age will be vaccinated.
The campaign will be kicked off in Karachi from the 22nd to the 26th of January, while 12000 teams will take part in the five-day campaign and approximately 5,000 police personnel will be providing security cover.
A total of eight polio cases were reported in Pakistan in 2017 out of which two were from Karachi. This is a historical low for the country and the province.
Coordinator EOC Sindh Fayaz Jatoi said: “We have come a long way to achieve historically low cases but more work needs to be done and we must improve further. The teams must continue their hard work and parents must come forward to vaccinate their children to save them from the scourge of polio. No child should suffer from a vaccine preventable disease and it is our collective responsibility to make sure all children are vaccinated so that we have a healthy future for our generations.”