ISLAMABAD, Aug 27 (APP):The government has successfully achieved 95.3 percent targets from the sub-national polio eradication campaign which was started to vaccinate around 34 million children under the age of five year across the country.
According to an official of Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme, total 130 districts were covered from Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) during campaign days from August 13 to August 21.
He said that the campaign was conducted following the successful resumption of polio activities in July 2020 after a four-month suspension due to COVID-19 pandemic.
He said that in order to build immunity amongst susceptible children, vaccinators visited door-to-door during this campaign to administer the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) to children under the age of five, as well as Vitamin A supplements to children who were between 6-59 months of age.
He said that it was imperative that Pakistan continued its fight against polio with an already accessible, safe and widely used vaccine that had saved countless children from polio worldwide.
Coordinator of the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) of the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme, Dr Rana Safdar said “The August campaign was much bigger than the last campaign held in July as field staff approached more vulnerable children.”
He said “I was encouraged with the success of our last campaign, particularly how parents cooperated with vaccinators despite the COVID environment, and how our vaccinators followed the COVID safety precautions they were trained on.”
He said “I believe that if we continue to learn and adapt to the current environment, we can continue to fight the polio virus head on.” He said that to maintain such momentum in polio eradication, the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme has planned additional sub-national campaigns in September of this year, followed by back-to-back national vaccination campaigns across the country between October, November and December.
He expressed the hope that parents would continue to realize the importance of vaccinating their children in coming campaigns and help the nation ultimately to end the threat of polio.
He said that vaccinators were trained to undertake prevention measures, including keeping a safe distance from children and families while administering drops and ensuring that parents themselves hold their children.
He said that the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme had provided vaccinators with face masks and hand sanitizers for additional protection.