KARACHI, July 12: Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, speaking at a ceremony on Monday, held to launch the national immunization campaign against polio across the country from Tuesday (today) , said that special measures were being taken to ensure that extra caution was adopted in the high-risk areas, and no under-five child was left unvaccinated.

Dr Rahim also called upon the community to actively participate in the campaign to make the country polio-free in the minimum possible time. The Consul General of Japan, Kanji Hanagata, speaking on the occasion, mentioned that Japan had donated $10 million to Pakistan for procurement of OPV and eradication of the crippling disease during the current year, adding that another $9 million had been given to the country to purchase the vaccines and necessary equipment to check neo-natal tetanus.

Mr Hanagata mentioned that a sum of $3.3 billion had been provided to six countries reporting the crippling disease, including Pakistan, by the G-8 countries for the cause of polio eradication.

Dr Fatim Kamil, the special representative of the WHO-EMRO Region, who has specially flown in from Cairo to monitor the campaign, mentioned that Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Egypt, happened to be among the countries struggling to attain the zero prevalence of polio virus.

Mr Gabol, speaking at the ceremony, urged the town and union councillors to motivate people and also take due interest in improving the quality of the vaccination campaign.

Later, the EPI Director, Dr Imtiaz Mughal, talking to the APP appealed to the media to sensitize masses that local parents must necessarily take their children under eleven months at the fixed centres for routine immunization, adding that only OPV drops would be administered by the teams of vaccinators visiting their residences.

To a question, he said that an estimated 6.17 million children, up to the age of five years, would be administered OPV during the six-day campaign, adding that 14,203 mobile teams, each comprising two vaccinators, had been constituted for the purpose, besides the 1,686 fixed teams.

The director-general, Sindh Health Department, Dr H B Memon, offered vote of thanks, while Prof Masood Hameed, Vice-Chancellor, Dow University of Health Sciences, also spoke on the occasion.

EXTENSION: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad, inaugurating the polio vaccination campaign at a health unit in Sultanabad area on Monday, announced a three-day extension in the exercise from July 13 to July 18.