August 20, 2008	Wednesday	Sha’aban 17, 1429

KARACHI, Aug 19: The Sindh Minister for Health, Dr Saghir Ahmed, has said that over 6.5 million children under five will be administered polio vaccines during the three-day campaign launched on Tuesday all across the province.

Speaking at a meeting held in connection with the anti-polio campaign at his office, the minister urged all political leaders to play their due roles for the success of this campaign and to extend their support to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Unicef and the provincial health department to protect children from this crippling disease.

The provincial health minister directed all the relevant officials to monitor the performance of the special teams constituted to administer polio drops to children residing in the border areas of Sindh, at the entrance and exit routes of the city, railway stations and at the inter-provincial bus terminals.

The minister said that he would conduct surprise visits to review the ongoing campaign and would also ensure that the mobile teams of the health department had covered all the areas.He appealed to the people to extend their cooperation to the health department’s officials visiting their areas.

The health minister said that as many as 19,500 teams had been constituted to cover the entire province during the three-day campaign while 716 zonal supervisors would closely monitor anti-polio activities.—APP