October 22, 2002	Tuesday	Sha’aban 15,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 21: Health department has made arrangements for administering polio drops to over 50,000 children in the rural and urban areas of the capital during a three-day campaign starting on Tuesday.

As many as 162 mobile teams have been formed for the purpose, official sources said on Monday.

District Health Officer Dr. Zafar Lodhi said no polio case has been reported from the rural areas after 1999, which indicates a big achievement towards eradication of this deadly disease from the federal capital.

About 30 million children under the age of five years will be vaccinated against polio in the national immunization days starting from October 22-24, a Unicef press release says.

During this second round of immunization, popular singer Jawad will be out in the streets of Hyderabad, from where polio cases have recently been reported, encouraging families to ensure immunization of their children.

Jawad’s song, Khushi Ho Tere Char Soo (May happiness be all around you), has become a symbol of the drive to eradicate polio.

“Polio has killed or crippled many Pakistani children over the years, but what I am saying through my song is that a world without polio is a happier world”, the singer said.

The eradication of polio from the world is a major operation, involving four global partners — Unicef, the World Health Organization, Rotary International and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Experts say the eradication campaign is on track to certify a polio-free world by 2005, but there is still some way to go. In Pakistan, the global partners are joined by the health ministry as well as the Government of Japan.

Polio immunization days are held in every part of the country, but, this time, Unicef and its partners are especially targeting high-risk areas, or “hot spots” from where polio cases have recently been reported. These areas include Southern Punjab and Northern Sindh.

“It’s a huge logistical operation and it involves thousands of staff members and volunteers across the country. In this particular round of immunization, we are providing more resources than ever before in the high-risk areas,” Dr Thaneoke Kyaw- Myint, senior project officer for Unicef’s primary health care section, said.

“Every child under the age of five must be immunized,” Unicef representative Carroll Long said. “It is the responsibility of all of us — the family, the community and the government — to ensure that happens.”

The government has already made a successful effort towards reducing the numbers of polio cases in the country. The number of confirmed cases fell from more than 1,800 in 1993 to 119 in 2001. Though much of Pakistan is already polio-free, this year to date, 54 cases have been reported. In 1988, when the global polio eradication initiative was launched, there were 125 polio-endemic countries. Today that figure has shrunk to 10, including Pakistan.

“Everybody can play a part in kicking polio out of Pakistan. If you know a child who has not been immunised or who has signs of paralysis, then you must make sure that the local authorities know about him or her,” Unicef’s Dr Kyaw-Myint says.