Daily Times

A week-long anti-polio drive will commence in the Rawalpindi district on February 26 to cover more than one million children under five years of age.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of District Health Authority, Dr Ejaz Ahmad told APP that as many as 4,199 polio teams would go door-to-door to administer polio drops to 10,15,262 children of less than five years of age in all tehsils and union councils of the district during the campaign.

The CEO said Medical Officers of 243 Union Councils and 858 area Incharges would also participate in the drive. In addition, “361 fix centers will up set up to administer the drops”, Ejaz added.

He said that anti-polio drops would also be administered at 182 transit points while teams would also be deputed at toll plazas to ensure that no child could miss immunization. He said that the second campaign of the year was being started after the detection of the positive sample of Polio Virus circulating in the area.

The CEO said that the objective of regularly conducting anti-polio campaigns was to keep children through protective drops and increase their immunity.

He urged the citizens, particularly the parents, to come forward and play their role in eliminating the crippling disease from the society. The parents should cooperate with special to achieve the set target, he added.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Hasan Waqar Cheema warned the officials that strict action should be taken against those responsible for fake entries. He further directed to cover the missing and refusal cases by convincing the parents with the help of local community leaders and achieving the target set for the drive.