Shakeel Qadir Khan emphasizes it’s extremely important to convince parents to get children vaccinated against crippling disease
QUETTA (6AM Report): The seven-day polio immunization campaign is due to start all over Balochistan from February 26 (Monday).
Over 2.65 million children below five years of age would be administered the anti-polio vaccine along with Vitamin “A” drops during the immunization campaign.
Moreo than 11,000 teams would take part in the anti-polio campaign and administer the anti-polio and Vitamin “A” drops to the children.
These and similar other details were shared during a briefing conducted for Chief Secretary, Shakeel Qadir Khan at a meeting of Provincial Task Force for polio eradication here on Thursday.
The Secretary Health, Abdullah Khan, Coordinator Emergency Operation Center (EOC), Syed Zahid Shah, representatives of UNICEF, World Health Organization and other concerned departments were present in the meeting.
The meeting reviewed the measures taken for eradication of polio in the province.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Secretary said that the anti-polio campaign going to be started next week is very important.
He said that it is very necessary to administer anti-polio vaccine to the children below five years of age during the immunization campaign in order to eradicate the virus fully.
He reiterated the government’s resolve of mobilizing all available resources for eradication of polio from the province. In this regard, he also emphasized upon convincing the parents who otherwise refuse to get their children vaccinated against polio.
He mentioned that special attention is being to the children left from vaccination and that at the transit points.
He said that it is very necessary to convince the patients for vaccination of their children so as to protect them from crippling disease.
He said that it is our firm resolve to eradicate the polio virus from Balochistan. For the purpose, the role of religious leaders and tribal elders is crucial, adding he stressed further.
The Chief Secretary directed the concerned high ups to provide security to all the teams taking part in the immunization campaign.
He also urged the parents to ensure complete immunization of their children besides administering anti-polio drops to them.
Earlier, it was informed that no fresh case of polio has been reported since 2021. However, the polio virus has been detected in the environment and sewerage samples of different districts of the province.
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