Rawalpindi: (Parliament Times) The five-day national polio eradication drive will start all over Punjab from Monday September 18, Minister for Primary and Secondary Healthcare Khawaja Imran Nazir said on Thursday.
The provincial emergency operations centre has constituted over 44 thousand teams who will go door to door to vaccinate over 18.5 million under-five children all over the province.
They include teams deployed at major bus stands, inter-provincial borders, airports, railway stations and hospitals.
“The Punjab government wants to reach and vaccinate every single child before we enter into polio high risk seasonâ€, said Khawaja Imran.
“This is absolutely critical in order to ensure that no more child suffers from the incurable diseaseâ€, the minister added.
Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare Ali Jan Khan said province will be implementing the campaign more aggressively in Rawalpindi, Lahore and South Punjab.
“A polio case in Lodhran and consistent positive environmental samples indicate that children are more vulnerable in these districtsâ€, he said.
Punjab’s Emergency Operation Coordinator Dr. Munir Ahmed said although a polio case and consistent positive environment samples have been a cause of concern but not a setback to our efforts to eradicate the virus.
Dr. Munir said parents may contact helpline 0800-99000 if polio teams do not turn up in their areas.
Punjab has had no polio case in 2016 but with the beginning of 2017 a child was paralysed by the virus in Lodhran, leaving the family devastated. Four polio cases have been reported in Pakistan this year from Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan, Sindh and Balochistan respectively.
