Daily Times

KARACHI: Reviewing progress of the on-going polio campaign in the province, Aseefa Bhutto Zardari on Friday inaugurated polio campaign at Karachi’s old area Soldier Bazar dispensary and administered polio drops to the children.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) Acting Consul General, Karachi ‘Bakheet Ateeq Al Romaithi’ also participated in the event. It may be recalled that fifth single-phase campaign of the current year started on 24th May and ended on 27th May 2016. Under this campaign, 8.3 million children under 5 years for the province and 2.2 million children under 5 years for Karachi were to be vaccinated.

During the visit, the polio campaign officials briefed Aseefa that the overall quality was up to the mark and no major incident was reported from the province including Karachi and 96 per cent coverage was achieved while the remaining will be tracked for vaccination in the extended catch-up. In total, 7991 teams were deployed to vaccinate all children that fell into the age bracket.

The UAE is supporting the polio campaign in the high risk areas of Pakistan including Karachi of Sindh province. Karachi Commissioner Asif Haider Shah gave briefing about Karachi campaign and Shahnaz Wazir Ali, Emergency Operations Center Provincial Coordinator Shahnaz Wazir Ali also briefed Aseefa on the progress of polio campaign in the province. They thanked UAE diplomat for the support towards the eradication of Polio from Pakistan.

Secretary Health Ahmed Bux Narejo, Asif Jan Siddique DC East, Dr Agha Ashfaque Ahmed Project Director EPI, Dr Ahmed Ali Shaikh, Polio Focal Person EOC. Huma Khan, UNICEF representative DHO East and THO Jamsheed town were also present on the occasion.