July 01, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 26, 1429

KARACHI, June 30: A three-day national immunisation campaign against polio virus is being launched across Sindh like elsewhere in the country from July 1.

About 19,433 mobile, transient and fixed teams comprising about 35,000 vaccinators are in place to administer the OPV drops to children, said Dr Mazhar A. Khamisani, the manager of Expansion Programme on Immunisation, on Monday.

He said around 6.5 million children up to five years of age will be administered a mix of mOPV3 and trivalent OPV, depending on where they reside.

Since January 2008, he said, Sindh has reported 10 confirmed polio cases and as such the field staff have been told to ensure better quality campaign by reaching every deserving child.

Last year, polio cases were found in eight districts in the province. However, in first half of this year 10 polio cases were detected in nine districts, including Karachi, Hyderabad, Nawabshah, Shikarpur, Mirpurkhas, Naushehro Feroze, Jacobabad, Dadu and Sanghar.—Staff Reporter