KARACHI, Sept 26: No fresh polio case has been reported from Karachi and its periphery during the current year and only three in the province of the total 17 reported from across the country in the same period.

This was stated by Sindh Health Minister Shabbir Ahmed Qaimkhani on Monday while reviewing the arrangements made for a three-day national immunization days commencing from Tuesday.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister referred to an updated WHO report mentioning that 1,219 new confirmed cases of polio were reported from 10 different countries across the globe till mid September this year.

“Pakistan has been placed at sixth position among the countries where the polio virus still persists,” he said.

The meeting among others was also attended by Sindh Health Secretary Prof Naushad Shaikh, District Health Officer-Karachi, Dr Khalid Shaikh, and Sindh EPI Project Director Dr Khaddim Hussain Lakhiar.

Mr Qaimkhani expressed his gratitude to the international agencies including Unicef, WHO, GAVI and the Rotary Club- International for their support to the polio eradication efforts in Pakistan.

Reviewing the details of the arrangement for the three-day campaign, he expressed satisfaction that a total number of 1,877 teams had been constituted to administer oral anti-polio vaccines to more than 6,267,661 children under the age of five years.

The teams in question comprises 15,865 mobile teams, 1,114 transit teams and 1,797 fixed centres to be monitored by 3,491 supervisors and 716 zonal supervisors.

The minister later left for Mirpurkhas to formally launch the campaign at the Mirpukhas Civil Hospital on Monday afternoon.

Dr Khadim Hussein Lakhiar, Project Director, Expanded Programme on Immunization - Sindh, said these campaigns were urgently required as the polio virus was still existent in the environment and lest the entire country’s attained zero-polio prevalence and maintained the status for three consecutive years, the task of absolute polio eradication could not be ensured.

He said this while talking to APP via phone from Mirpurkhas.

Dr Mohammad Azmoudeh informed that children were being given monovalent category of the oral anti-polio vaccine through the support of GAVI.

Elaborating the same, he mentioned that the vaccine contained only P-One strain, as other categories of strain had been established to be non-existent in the country.

“This is reflective of the fact that Pakistan is in the last leg of polio eradication and extremely cautious approach is required to ensure that all children up to five are administered the vaccine without failure,” he stressed.

Dr Azmoudeh urged the parents to ensure that infants were particularly not excluded from the campaign in backdrop of the misunderstanding that since they were getting these as part of the scheduled vaccines hence did not need additional vaccination during these special campaigns.

Adding to the plea of Dr Azmoudeh, Sindh EPI project director also urged parents to take stock that their kids were not under any condition deprived of the routine immunization, against diseases preventable through vaccination.

It was mentioned that eight million doses were available for the special immunization campaign commencing from Tuesday in the province.—APP