Altaf Hamid Rao.
MIRPUR (AJK), (Parliament Times) : Like in various major districts in the country, all is set to launch the 05-day nation-wide polio-eradication drive in Azad Jammu & Kashmir’s two major districts including Mirpur and Muzaffarabad from Monday – June 07, official sources said.
The campaign will continue till June 11, without any pause.
Target of administrating the polio vaccine drops to a total of 63741 children under five years of age during the 5-day campaign in Mangla~dam’s Mirpur district of AJK ~ besides the capital district of Muzaffarabad, said Mirpur District Health Officer Dr. Fida Hussain in an interview to this Correspondent here on Sunday. The campaign will commence in the two AJK’s major district by the AJK Health Department with the collaboration of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Fida Hussain said while unveiling the schedule of immunization campaign against polio in the district. Dr Fida revealed that no case of polio disease had emerged anywhere in Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) for last 16 years.
He said that Mirpur district was comprised. of the total population of 438,319 persons which included over 63 thousand children of under five years of age.
“The district has been divided into 28 zones with the induction of the one supervisor in each zone to implement the drive”, he said adding that one Ward Incharge would supervise the campaign in the determined area falling in each Union Council in the district.
A total of 70 Union Councils / Ward Incharges will look after the campaign in all 70 union councils in the district.
Elaborating the district-wise anti-polio drive, Dr Fida Hussain further said that a total of 286 mobile teams of paramedical staff involving over 450 para-medical workers had been constituted and 33 fixed centers and 14 transit points have been set up in the district to immunize the children with the anti-polio vaccine.
The mobile teams, he said, would visit door to door by strictly acting upon the already devised SOPs in view of the still prevailing but controlled COVID-19 in the state, to administer anti-polio drops to children under five years of age.
He said that Catch up teams would remain alert to administer the polio drops on the fourth and fifth days even after the conclusion of the 5-day drive across the district.
He strongly suggested that there was earnest need of accountability and commitment to this global cause for achieving the target for complete eradication of the fatal disease.
The DHO advised the parents to cooperate the visiting mobile paramedic teams to make the national anti-polio campaign complete success.
And in AJK’s capital district of Muzaffarabad, the target of 1,10,137 children up to five years of age, was set to be administered the anti-Polio vaccines and Vitamin -drops and for this purpose 438 mobile teams have been constituted and 63 fixed sites have been set up by the State Polio Eradication Committee. A total of 31 zones have been demarcated for conducting door to door drive under the supervision of 114 area in charges, AJK State Health authorities told out Special AJK Correspondent Altaf Hamid Rao on Sunday.
The state health department’s Polio Eradication Committee have made adequate arrangement to executive the polio-eradication campaign in a befitting manner.
Devised SOPs to avert any harm of the pandemic, especially fastening mask and using sanitizer will be strictly implemented by both mobile teams para-medical teams and the parents during the five-day nation-wide campaign.
Parents have been advised to fully cooperate the mobile teams by getting their children administered with the polio-vaccine by the mobile paramedical staff teams besides at the transit points for the kids travelling with their parents during the campaign
The fixed centers have been set up at the state-run hospitals, basic health units, rural health centers as well as various other spots to vaccinate the children with the anti-polio drops.
The total staff to be involved in the drive including mobile teams comprising over 4500 workers for visiting door to door to immunize the children of and under 5 years of age during the campaign throughout Azad Jammu & Kashmir.
It may be added that the state health authorities claimed that there no any case of polio disease to any child detected in any part of Azad Jammu & Kashmir during over last 21 years, the State Health Authorities underlined.
“Although no any polio case has been detected in AJK since 2000, yet it was earnest need of accountability and commitment to this cause for achieving the target to discourage the outburst of this fatal disease”, veteran Kashmiri physician and experts of family medicines Dr Khalid Yousaf said in an informal chat to APP here on Sunday.
