KARACHI, July 7: External health officials are to monitor vaccination activities during the polio immunisation drive scheduled for July 10 in 13 of the city’s towns. The campaign was originally scheduled for June but Karachi fell behind the other districts in the aftermath of the May 12 violence.

The project director of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation for Sindh, Dr Salma Kauser Ali, told Dawn that executive district officers (health) from other districts have been invited to oversee the 70th round of the administration of oral drops from July 10 to 12. National and international monitors will also visit Karachi during the campaign, which intends to immunise about 1,628,555 children under five years of age.

Dr Ali said that only 13 towns are being targeted because other the towns had been perfectly covered in earlier drives. “Of the selected areas, we will be making special efforts in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Gulberg and North Nazimabad towns,” she remarked.