Anti-polio drive in Balochistan, Northern Areas begins today
By Our Staff Correspondent
QUETTA, Nov 5: A three-day anti-polio vaccination campaign will be launched from Tuesday throughout Balochistan with the help of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef.
Prof Dr Abdul Ghaffar Nagi, consultant child specialist of the Sandeman Civil Hospital, Quetta, announced this, while speaking at a press conference, which was attended among others by Dr Sher Mohammad, deputy district health officer, here on Monday.
During the drive, around 2.7 million children upto five years of age would be administered polio drops in the province.
All arrangements are said to have been completed by agencies concerned, including the Balochistan Health Department, to make the campaign a success.
Our Gilgit correspondent adds: The health department of the Northern Areas has planned to vaccinate as many as 176,000 children against polio in its current year anti-polio drive’s fifth and the last phase, which will begin on Tuesday (today) and will continue till Thursday.
In order to meet its target, the department has constituted 577 mobile teams to vaccinate children against polio in far-flung and hilly areas of the region while 112 teams will be stationed at the main vaccination centres, Northern Areas Chief Secretary Maj (retd) Fazal Durrani said at the Midwifery School Gilgit on Monday.