SUKKUR, June 12: Sindh province will become polio-free by the end of this year, said the adviser to the Sindh chief minister on health, Mohammad Noman Saigal.

Speaking at a news briefing on Thursday, he said during the series of four anti-polio campaigns, organized by the Sindh Health Department during the last one year, had enabled the department to achieve its targets, and only 14 polio cases were detected in this period during these campaigns.

He said that Sukkur and Ghotki had already been on the list of polio-free zones, and efforts are being made to wipe out the menace of polio from other districts of the province.

He claimed, “There was no shortage of medicines and vaccines in the government hospitals of the province.”

He said the medicines’ allocation for the urban and rural hospitals and health centres will be doubled during the next financial year.

He hinted about the enforcement of compulsory health insurance scheme for the employees of shops and small establishments throughout the Sindh province in which data will be collected from the Social Security Institution and Employees Old-Age Benefit Institution.—APP