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BAHAWALPUR, Aug 29 (APP):Deputy Commissioner Bahawalpur Dr Farhan Farooq has said that during the national polio eradication campaign, oral polio vaccine (OPV) drops will be administered to 526,025 children under the age of five.
He stated that special measures would be taken in flood-affected areas during the campaign to ensure complete vaccination of children in those regions. He also ordered all Clinic on Wheels vehicles to be deployed in flood-affected areas. The Deputy Commissioner announced that the four-day national polio campaign will begin on September 1 and run until September 4. For the campaign to be successful, he said, 75 Union Council Monitoring Officers, 402 Area In-Charges, 1,975 mobile teams, 140 fixed teams, and teams at 89 transit points will be deployed across the district. He directed health officials to ensure zero-dose children are vaccinated by all possible means during the campaign.
The Deputy Commissioner was presiding over a review meeting on polio eradication in the office’s committee room. In his address, Dr. Farhan Farooq said that we must learn from the experience of the previous polio campaign and improve performance. He reiterated that administering the polio vaccine is a national duty, and parents, by showing responsibility during the campaign, can save their children from lifelong disability. He added that protecting children from lifelong disability is, in essence, serving humanity.
The Deputy Commissioner urged improvements in the actions taken by the Health Department and other related departments to achieve the campaign’s targets. He requested detailed guidance on finger-marking, door-marking, and other related tasks, and stressed ensuring access to distant areas to prevent any potential issues during the campaign.
In the meeting, the Chief Executive Officer of Health provided a detailed briefing on achieving the polio campaign targets. The meeting was attended by Assistant Commissioners of Bahawalpur City and Bahawalpur Saddar, Health CEO Dr. Aamir Bashir, DHO Dr. Khalid Channar, a representative from WHO, and other officers from relevant departments.