Experts Calls For Increased Awareness, Collective Effort To End Polio

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Oct, 2021 ) :Health experts on 'World Polio Day' on Sunday underlined the need for making collective efforts to eradicate the polio disease from the country and asked media for increasing awareness in less developed areas.

Talking to a private news channel, experts urged parents to fulfill their responsibility by ensuring that their children were vaccinated during the drive.

"Immunization is a right of every child, and it is the safest way to ensure good health of children", Dr Rana Safdar a Polio specialist while talking to a private news channel said.

He also appealed the public representatives, imams, teachers to play their practical role by raising awareness about the importance of anti-polio vaccination to make the country free from disease which causes disabilities to children.

There was no room for negligence in the polio eradication drive in Pakistan, he stressed, adding, polio teams under strict instructions of government were trying their best to administer anti-polio drops to each single children of under five years of age.

Another health specialist, Dr Farhan Sikandar said that vaccination was an effective and safe method to protect children against polio and as such it was the moral, religious and parental duty of every citizens specially guardian to get their children vaccinated.

He said the main goal of a polio-free country could only be achieved by ensuring that every child under five years got two drops of polio vaccines every time, adding, there was a need to work harder in high risk areas, particularly in the next few months.

Replying a question, he said due to enormous challenges such as misconceptions about vaccines and the Covid-19 lock downs, the efforts against polio have been affected in past few months, adding, all routine immunization centers would again resumed and parents once again have been encouraged to vaccinate their children.