Independent Report
QUETTA: The seven-day anti-polio campaign is scheduled to commence across Balochistan including Quetta on Monday (today).
During the campaign, polio drops would be administered to 2.66 million children under the age of five.
This was announced by the Coordinator of Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Balochistan, Inamul Haq here on Sunday.
According to the EOC Coordinator, all arrangements have been completed for the campaign and teams have been mobilized in both urban and remote areas of the province.
A total of 11,134 teams would take part in the campaign, including 824 fixed teams and 476 transit teams. He said that success of the immunization campaign depends on public cooperation.
He mentioned that 30 polio cases have been reported in Pakistan this year. However, no polio case has been reported in Balochistan, although the polio virus is still present in the province’s environment and has been detected in Barkhan and Chaman due to which young children can be infected at any time.
He added that out of 23 polio virus–positive areas last month, 20 have reported negative results.
Therefore, this campaign is of vital importance to protect children from these risks and to eliminate the polio virus from the environment.
Inamul Haq urged parents to ensure that their children gets the vaccine, warning that failure to do so can result in lifelong disability.
The EOC Coordinator appealed to civil society members, teachers and religious leaders to help raise awareness and encourage parents to have their children vaccinated.
Inamul Haq also reminded parents of the importance of routine immunization, which protects children from 12 deadly diseases such as measles, tuberculosis, hepatitis B and diphtheria.
He urged parents to visit their nearest health centers to ensure timely vaccination of their children.
He said that protecting children’s health is our collective responsibility. If even one child is deprived of polio drops, all children are put at risk.
