QUETTA: A four-day polio eradication campaign was launched amid tight security in Qila Abdullah and five other districts of the Nasir­abad division on Monday.

Twenty-one polio cases have been reported from Qila Abdullah, Quetta, Pishin and Zhob districts over the past six months.

According to health officials, around 129,000 children will be vaccinated in Qila Abdullah district alone. Authorities said that 390 medical teams were taking part in the campaign in 30 union councils of the district.

Similar arrangements have been made in Nasirabad, Jaffarabad, Sobatpur, Bolan and Jhal Magsi districts.

Health teams comprising male and female volunteers are taking part in the campaign. They administered vaccination drops to children in all the five districts on Monday.

“We want that a maximum number of children below five years of age be administered drops,” officials of the Expanded Programme of Immunisation said.

The administration in the six districts has stepped up security for health workers engaged in the campaign.

Published in Dawn December 23th , 2014