LAHORE: More than 19m children under five years of age will be vaccinated against polio all over the province during the fourth national immunisation drive of the current year starting today (Monday).

The campaign would continue till Sept 26, said Minister for Health Dr Yasmin Rashid while reviewing arrangements for the drive here on Sunday.

She said elimination of the crippling disease was the top priority of the Punjab government and the anti-polio drive would be carried out according to the plan.

“Reaching out to every child for vaccination is absolutely critical in order to ensure that no child suffers from this incurable disease. The goal of making Pakistan polio-free would be achieved with missionary zeal,” she said while making an appeal to the parents and teachers to become ‘helping hands’ of the government in the anti-polio drive.

Punjab’s Emergency Operation Coordinator for Polio Eradication Dr Munir Ahmed said the country was very close to eradicating the crippling disease, thanks to frequent vaccination drives.

“Consistent positive environment samples in Rawalpindi and Lahore indicate that children were still at risk in certain areas. More than 45,000 teams have been constituted for door-to-door vaccination and the target is to vaccinate over 19m children under five years of age.”

Dr Munir said the vaccination campaigns were being conducted with the resolve to eradicate polio from Pakistan in 2018. He urged the parents to cooperate with the polio teams in their areas and call the official helpline of 0800-99000 in case of any complaints.

Punjab had no polio case in 2016 but with the beginning of 2017, a child was paralysed by the virus in Lodhran. Eight polio cases were reported in 2017: one each from Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan while Sindh recorded two and Balochistan three cases. No polio case was reported from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) last year.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2018