Polio vaccination campaign continues

LAHORE    –   A polio vaccination marketing campaign to immunize greater than 21.54 million kids below the age of 5 years continued on Thursday in Sindh and Punjab. The five-day vaccina­tion marketing campaign is being held in two phases as a result of concurring activi­ties of the seventh nationwide census. Within the first section, over 17.41 mil­lion kids below the age of 5 in 13 districts of Punjab and 16 dis­tricts of Sindh and Islamabad shall be vaccinated from March 13 to 17. The second section shall be held from April 03 to 07 – through the second week of Ramazan – to vaccinate greater than 4.12 million kids in 12 districts of Balochistan and 26 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, together with the seven endemic dis­tricts within the southern area of the province. Federal Minister for Well being Abdul Qadir Patel urged par­ents and caregivers to make sure that their kids obtain the life-saving polio vaccine in order that they continue to be protected against poliovirus, which has been discovered circulating in envi­ronmental samples. “The presence of untamed polio within the atmosphere exhibits that the virus is circulat­ing in our communities and pos­ing a severe danger to our youngsters,” stated Abdul Qadir Patel, the min­ister. “With Ramazan across the nook, inhabitants actions can enhance the chance of additional unfold, due to this fact, it’s essential that folks and caregivers vaccinate their chil­dren on this and each marketing campaign,” stated the minister. “We now have specifi­cally designed this March marketing campaign to achieve areas the place inhabitants motion isn’t just frequent but in addition anticipated throughout Ramazan and Eid pageant,” stated Dr Shahzad Baig, Nationwide Emergency Operations Heart. “It’s important that we attain as many kids as potential with the vaccine now to curb polio trans­mission,” he added. No human case has been reported in Pakistan since September 2022 when a polio out­break paralyzed 20 kids – all of them in southern KP districts. Wild poliovirus was detected for the primary time this 12 months in sewage samples collected from two separate websites in Lahore in January