Polio campaign to begin in Sindh province from Nov 30

KARACHI: The Emergency Operation Centre for polio in Sindh will launch a province-wide polio campaign from 30 November to 6 December 2020 as part of the national immunization days, ARY NEWS reported.

According to details, polio drops will be administered to approximately 9 million children under the age of five years across the 29 districts of the province.

The campaign will be conducted whilst following strict WHO recommended COVID prevention protocols including the use of face masks by health workers and maintaining a safe distance from children while administering the drops.

Spokesperson EOC Sindh while detailing the immunization process said that the COVID-19 had an adverse effect on routine immunization from March to July and therefore back to back monthly polio campaigns have been launched since August 2020 to overcome the immunity gap.

“While we deal with the pandemic, we must also deal with childhood immunization to prevent childhood diseases.”

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan is one of the two polio-endemic countries in the world along with Afghanistan and has so far reported a total of 81 cases in 2020 out of which 22 are from Sindh.