Health Desk:
QUETTA: An anti-polio campaign would commence across Balochistan today (Monday). During the campaign, children under the age of five years would be provided anti-polio drops.
This will be a five-day anti-polio campaign in 426 union councils of 19 districts of Balochistan in which 17,85,000 children will get the polio drops. The campaign will involve 6820 teams to administer polio drops to the children.
“All parents are requested to fully cooperate with the polio workers during the campaign to give polio drops to their children”, Syed Zahid Shah, the coordinator of the emergency operation center in Balochistan.
He said that the role of scholars along with other classes of people is very important in raising awareness about the polio virus among the people, due to which today we are keeping our children safe by running a systematic campaign against polio.
The government has done strict security arrangements for the polio teams. Security personnel will be deployed at the camps of the campaign at different locations to provide security to the polio teams.
Polio does not only disable children but also kills them, that was the reason the world united to eradicate the virus from the world. The world has succeeded in eradicating polio but unfortunately, the virus still exists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan is one of the two countries, where the country remains under a polio-linked travel restriction imposed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Balochistan is most vulnerable to polio because of the neighboring country Afghanistan and Khyber Pakhthun Khwa (KPK) province.
Fortunately, Balochistan has not reported any polio case form the last 21 months. The government of Balochistan is putting its robust abilities to eradicate the virus from the province. “Pakistan is suffering from poliovirus but the time is near when our country will join the polio-free countries”, Chief Secretary Balochistan, Abdul Aziz Uqailli lamented.
