KARACHI: The Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for polio will launch the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) campaign in the coastal areas of the province, following the recent outbreak of polio virus in the area. The first phase of the IPV supplementary immunization activity will start from February 13th to 21st in all districts of Karachi (136 UCs), Thatta, Badin, Sujawal and Tando Muhammad Khan. A total of 20 cases were reported in the country last year, out of which eight cases surfaced in five districts of Sindh. Of them, two cases each, were reported from Sujawal and Badin. “There are two major factors for launching the IPV campaign in these particular areas – malnutrition and because there is no regular immunisation there” Dr Rana Safdar, the head of the National Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) told Daily Times by telephone. According to the National Nutrition Survey, around 54 percent of children in the country are malnourished. “It requires 4 to 5 OPV doses for a well-fed child to develop immunity. However, there are some easy pockets where children – despite OPV vaccination – could not develop immunity against the polio virus,” Dr Safdar added. Both orally administered, live attenuated polio vaccines (OPV) and inactivated polio vaccines (IPV) for intramuscular (or subcutaneous) injection are widely used internationally.