January 22, 2006	Sunday	Zilhaj 21, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 21: Arrangements have been finalized to administer polio vaccine to 6,257,662 children below five years belonging to Sindh during the four-day immunization campaign beginning from Jan 23.

Giving the briefing to Sindh Health Minister Shabbir Ahmed Qaimkhani about the measures adopted for the campaign here on Saturday, Sindh Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) officials mentioned that 15,818 mobile teams have been constituted along with 17,994 fixed teams and 1,104 transit teams to provide required cover.

It was also mentioned that 3,491 supervisors and 716 zonal supervisors would monitor the campaign.

Shabbir Qaimkhani called upon all the health department officials and staffers, particularly the EDO, to ensure that no child below five years is missed out. He directed that all identified and possible hindrances must be removed so that the objective of ‘polio-free country’ could be attained without any further delay. 

On Monday, the representatives of UNICEF and the WHO will administer polio drops to the children at Pakistan Coast Guards Headquarters at 9.30am. The wife of PCG Director-General will be the chief guest on the occasion.

LIAQUATABAD TOWN: In order to spread awareness among people about the importance of polio vaccination, a walk was arranged in Liaquatabad.

The walk started from Rashid Minhas School Nazimabad and participants of the walk marched through different routes and ended back at the same point from where it started.

In the meantime, Liaquatabad Town Nazim Osama Qadri presided over a meeting regarding polio vaccination campaign and asked the TMO as well as nazim and naib nazim of all union councils to seek cooperation from schools, NGOs, electronic and print media to create awareness.

He appealed to the people to ensure that their children below five years of age get polio vaccination during the polio vaccination campaign.

Meanwhile, the Nazim North Karachi Town, Mohammad Hanif Surti, has announced initiating a comprehensive and concerted strategy, focused on motivating parents to ensure immunisation of their children against various vaccine-preventable diseases, particularly polio.—APP/PPI