NAWABSHAH, Jan 17: Intensive vaccination was needed to cover areas missed during the previous anti-polio campaign to ensure that the district was polio-free, said District Coordination Officer of Nawabshah Abdul Razzaq Qureshi.

He was presiding over a meeting on Thursday regarding the launching of a three-day anti-polio campaign, beginning from Jan 22.

Criticising duplication of paperwork, he said that practical effort seemed to be lagging.

While appreciating the claims according to which Nawabshah was polio-free, he said the claims needed to be rigorously verified.

Representative of WHO

Dr Jawaid Bhutto called for paying more attention to anti-

polio drive and said that 40 cases of polio had been detected in Pakistan in 2006 against 31 in 2007, adding that 12 cases had been detected in Sindh, in 2006 and 12 in 2007.

EDO Health Abdul Khaliq Mangnejo said that 504 teams had been constituted to administer drops to 245,060 children.