MANSEHRA, Jan 10: District Nazim Syed Ahmad Hussain Shah has said that polio is a matter of national concern and people should play role to save children from the disease.

He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a three-day anti-polio drive at the district headquarters hospital here on Monday). The nazim said the Chinese authorities had eliminated the disease in only two anti-polio campaigns because of people's cooperation, though children below five in China numbered more than the entire population of Pakistan.

He urged people to follow that example and benefit from the drive to save the future of the nation, saying that the government spent millions of rupees on each round of anti-polio drive

EDO Health Syed Pervez Ali Shah said that 355,000 children would be vaccinated during the forthcoming anti-polio drive, the first round in 2005. He claimed that previous anti-polio campaigns in the district had been launched successfully, during which teams had vaccinated 99 per cent of the children.

The government was making efforts to achieve 100 per cent result this time, he said. He said that for the Jan-11 round, the authorities had formed 601 teams, including 69 to be deployed at stations while rest of them would be mobile. Around 117 people would supervise the operation of the teams in their respective areas.

Later, the nazim, DCO Hussainzada Khan and the EDO health opened the anti-polio drive by administering drops to children and joined a walk to raise awareness about the disease.