Senator Ayesha pays surprise visit to monitor polio campaign in ICT

ISLAMABAD, Sep 19 (APP): Prime Minister’s Focal Person,
Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq Tuesday conducted a surprise visit
to monitor polio campaign in Islamabad.
Visiting various localities in Islamabad, Senator Ayesha Raza
said she would personally monitor the campaign in the city and took
notice of gaps in provision of routine immunization services against
nine deadly diseases of children in area and issued directions to
ensure that every child is immunized without fail.
National Coordinator for Emergency Operation Centre (EOC), Dr
Rana Safdar and other senior officers of health ministry, Islamabad
Capital Territory (ICT) and Capital Development Authority (CDA)
also accompanied by the Senator.
Senator Ayesha also visited vaccinators working in slums
located on outskirts of Islamabad to personally monitor
immunization campaign on second day of the five-day nationwide
drive.
“Our Sehat Muhafiz have brought us so close to polio
eradication that we cannot afford to relax, hence me and leadership
of EOC have come out to support our valiant teams for getting rid of
this disease completely,” she added.
“Pakistan has recorded historic low number of cases in 2017 and
we don’t want to lose this opportunity to defeat this crippling
virus by being vigilant, proactive and persistent,” said the
Senator.
Prime Minister has constituted a special task force to
specifically monitor the campaign in twin cities of Islamabad and
Rawalpindi and report back to him on daily basis to ensure maximum
coverage during this and all the upcoming campaigns.
Though there has been no case reported from the twin cities
for over two years but virus has been found in the environmental
samples of both Islamabad and Rawalpindi drainage, thus raising the
concerns amongst officials and communities.
The Senator visited the homes, interacted with parents and
community elders in Pakistan Town, H-9, Koral and other areas. She
went inside homes and asked mothers if their children had been
vaccinated by vaccinators.
She urged the families and mothers to vaccinate their
children against diseases explaining that vaccination was being
provided by the government for free against nine diseases and that
it was the responsibility of parents to avail these services for
health and well-being of their children.
She also inspected the children playing in streets to see
whether their fingers had been marked after they were vaccinated.
Senator talked to polio teams and checked their tally sheets. She
also advised polio teams to pay attention to children who may be
visiting relatives since there is a possibility that such children
are missed in the drive.
Ayesha Raza further directed that each house, including
makeshift shanties, nomads and travelling families with under five
children should be administered polio drops and properly marked with
permanent markers to ensure each household is covered.
Over 250,000, front line workers (Sehat Muhafiz) are
administering polio drops to over 37.7 million children under the
age of five years across all provinces, FATA, Gilgit Baltistan (GB)
and AJK.
Target for Islamabad is 0.312 million during the current
campaign for which ICT and CDA administration have formed 1346 teams
and set up 73 teams at various transit points across Islamabad.