7-day anti polio campaign to begin in Karachi starting Sep 20

KARACHI: A seven-day campaign to eradicate polio from the metropolitan city shall begin from September 20 even as there has not been a single case of the disabling and life-threatening disease in over a year, ARY News reported on Thursday.

Commissioner Karachi was briefed ahead of the campaign in the city wherein he was intimidated of the facts and stats of polio.

In the past three month, the atmospheric reports from Karachi have remained negative in detecting poliovirus and since the past year there has not been a single case emerging from the city.

In the campaign to begin Sep 20, the target is to vaccinate 2.3 million children against the poliovirus to rid the city of the virus for good, Commissioner said.

Nationwide anti-polio campaign to kick-off from September 17

Pertinent to note that the federal government has decided to launch the nationwide anti-polio campaign this month.

According to details, the federal government has completed consultations with the provinces on the nationwide anti-polio campaign.

The anti-polio drive will run in Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and four other provinces.

Sources in the Ministry of Health said, in the first phase, the campaign will be launched in 34 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from September 17 to 21, while the second nationwide phase, will commence from September 20 to 24.

According to sources, in the third phase, the campaign in South Waziristan will be carried out from September 27 to October 1, there will be a three-day anti-polio campaign and two days of catch-up campaigns across the country.

Sources said that 40 million children will be vaccinated in the national anti-polio campaign, children in the age group of 6 to 59 months will be vaccinated with Vitamin A and the aim of Vitamin A vaccination is to improve the immunity of children.