KARACHI: Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho will launch the last polio campaign of the current year at Hilal-i-Ahmer near Teen Talwar on Monday.

Officials in the emergency operation centre (EOC) for polio in Sindh said the province was set to report its lowest case count of polio in a single year “but efforts must continue”.

They said the EOC would launch the last polio campaign of 2018 in all districts of Sindh which would continue for a whole week in Karachi while in the rest of Sindh it would last for four days.

Official figures show approximately 8.9 million children aged five or less would be targeted during the campaign. Some 2.3m of the children reside in Karachi. More than 50,000 front line workers will take part in the campaign.

In Karachi, there are more than 9,000 health workers supported by 2,300 plus area in charges will be part of the effort.

They will be given security cover by around 5,000 law enforcement agency personnel. Two cases were reported last year.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2018