MULTAN, April 19: Yet another country-wide Universal Polio Immunization campaign is around the corner to eradicate the disease amid doubts about maintenance of cold chain in a hot weather.

The three-day polio vaccination campaign is being launched from today (Tuesday) to administer polio drops to all the children between six-month and five years for immunization against the disease.

However, most of the paediatricians are skeptical about the suitability of the time to launch the drive, especially when the previous experiences with the anti-polio drives have revealed that a lot needs to be done to keep the cold chain working to ensure efficacy of the vaccine.

Experts say the ideal temperature to keep efficacy of the vaccine intact ranges -4 degrees Celsius to 4 degrees Celsius. According to some others, it can work even up to 8 degree Celsius.

They say most of the volunteers engaged in the anti-polio campaigns usually have little knowledge about the importance of the cold chain system in keeping the polio vaccine in viable form before administering it to the children.

A senior official says although the health department has immunized even more than 95 per cent of the targeted children against the disease in previous campaigns, polio has yet to be wiped out mainly due to the problems of the cold chain.

It is pertinent to mention that Pakistan is among the three countries on the globe from where this dreadful disease is yet to be eliminated. The others are India and Nigeria. The incidence of paralysis due to polio among children in Pakistan is, however, said to be higher than the other two countries of the polio club.

Paediatricians interviewed by this correspondent said it would have been a better choice if the policy-makers launched the universal immunization campaign in a relatively cold weather in order to keep intact the efficacy of the polio vaccine.

An official in the local health department revealed that most of the refrigerators meant to keep the polio vaccine had become out of order with the passage of time. Frequent power failures and absence of any alternative to keep the vaccine within the permissible temperature were the other factors for the breakdown of the cold chain system.

It was ironical that the polio had been eradicated even from the war-torn Afghanistan and Iraq, but the battle against the dreadful disease in Pakistan and neighbouring India was far from over, commented a senior paediatrician at the Nishter Medical College.