Over 6.2 M Kids To Be Vaccinated Against Polio In KP

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Sep, 2021 ) :Minister for Health and Finance Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Taimur Saleem Jhagra has said, protecting the children from polio is of utmost importance till the complete eradication of the menace of incurable disease from the region.

He said this while inaugurating September round of National Immunization Days (NIDs) in the province here Friday at Basic Health Unit (BHU) Gulshan Rehman Colony, Peshawar.

Coordinator EOC, Abdul Basit, representatives of World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, BMGF and Health Dept were also present on the occasion.

Talking to media, Taimur Jhagra said that every campaign is a golden opportunity to immunize children under five against polio and stop virus transmission in the last endemic region.

He said that the province has made a good progress in the war against polio with zero polio cases reported from the province, adding that sustainability of the current laurels will need a lot of efforts and dedication.

The provincial health minister held an appeal to the parents to cooperate with teams by vaccinating their children protecting them from lifelong disability and by helping the government reach the finish line purging the globe of the crippling virus.

Briefing media , he said that "All necessary security and logistic arrangements have been made to ensure smooth conduct of the anti-polio campaign starting from September 17, 2021 in the entire province".

He said that over 40000 law enforcing personnel will be deployed with teams to ensure safety of the frontline workers who are visiting door to door to vaccinate children against polio.

Minister for Health reiterated strong political commitment for polio eradication saying that government was leading the public health programme from the front at all levels.

Taimur Jhagra said that due to ownership of the government the number of polio cases have dropped significantly in the country and hoped that soon the virus will be stamped out of the last endemic region.

He said that over 6.2 million children will be vaccinated against polio for which 30340 total teams have been constituted out of which 27253 were mobile teams, 1857 fixed teams, 1078 transit and 152 roaming teams.

For effective supervision and quality of the campaign, over 7361 area in-charges will be deployed across the province, he added.

He said that every campaign is a chance to reach the finish line adding that the support of parents and caregivers was very important as without that teams will not be able to vaccinate children who are susceptible to contracting the disease.