KARACHI: The first polio campaign of the year is set to begin today (Monday) in the teeming metropolis in which more than 2.4 million children aged less than five years will be inoculated for the next six days, officials said on Sunday.

They said the campaign would be conducted in all the six districts of the city in which 12,000 teams would take part.

Some 5,000 police personnel will be providing security cover to the teams of volunteers marching on the streets of Karachi.

City Commissioner Aijaz Khan will formally inaugurate the campaign by inoculating children the KMC Maternity Home in Union Council No.4 of Chanesar Goth.

Officials said the total case count for polio in 2017 was eight in Pakistan out of which two cases were from the provincial capital.

“This is a historical low for the country and Sindh,” said an official.

In 2014 there were 306 cases of polio in Pakistan, it reduced to 54 in 2015, and in 2016 there were 20 such cases.

In Sindh, there were 30 cases in 2014, 12 in 2015, eight in 2016 and two cases last year.

“This shows the progress made in polio eradication,” said the official.

“We have come a long way to achieve historically low in polio cases but more work needs to be done and we must improve further,” said coordinator of the emergency operation centre for polio in Sindh, Fayaz Jatoi.

He asked the teams to continue their hard work and parents should come forward to vaccinate their children to save them from the scourge of the crippling disease.

“No child should suffer from a vaccine preventable disease and it is our collective responsibility to make sure all children are vaccinated so we have a healthy future for our generations.”

Officials said during the campaign, the city authorities and the concerned health officials had decided to create awareness among the parents, mothers in particular, about the significance of the vaccination that could help the country to eradicate the crippling disease.

Officials said the issue relating to the children who missed polio campaigns was perturbing as because of their absence at home or schools or due to refusal from their parents such campaigns remained ineffective.

The authorities have decided to further improve the monitoring system and everyone who was part of the gigantic effort should ensure that implementation regarding the micro plan should reflect the overall strategy.

To achieve the government’s plan to ensure that no child should miss the inoculation, they have decided to take some innovative measures according to which significance of the vaccination should be highlighted among the parents, mothers in particular.

They said communities should be motivated further to sensitise mothers about the importance of polio vaccination through female volunteers picked up from the very communities.

Besides, it was also decided that teams of volunteers for any neighbourhood would consist of the residents of that area.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2018