Daily Times

QUETTA – The second phase of Injectable Polio Vaccine (IPV) going to last for eight days will commence in 18 union councils of the high risk district of Killa Abdullah on Wednesday.

According to officials of the Emergency Operations Centre, the campaign aims at vaccinating more than 16,300 children in Killa Abdullah and Gulistan tehsil.

Balochistan Provincial Coordinator of Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) Dr Syed Saif-ur Rehman said that during the campaign children between the ages of 4 to 23 months would be injected with polio vaccine which would boost the immunity of the children in these areas where children were most susceptible to the crippling disease.

“The children aged between 4 to 23 months are most vulnerable to polio virus and more than 85 per cent cases reported last year were from this age group”, he said

Rehman said that the vaccination would be carried out through skilled vaccinators, adding that around 85 temporary vaccination outreach centres and 12 fixed sides would be established in two tehsils of Killa Abdullah.

He said that the first phase of IPV campaign had successfully been conducted in the districts of Quetta, Pishin and selected tehsils of Killa Abdullah.

“More than 200,000 children were vaccinated in this phase, and 93 per cent of the target had been achieved,” he said. The provincial coordinator said that during the first phase, around 140,296 children were vaccinated in Quetta, 37,354 in Pishin and 29,238 in Killa Abdullah.

Rehman appealed to parents to vaccinate their children at the nearest Basic Health Unit (BHU) to help prevent them from lifetime paralysis. He said that during the current campaign the security forces were also engaged to avert any untoward incident, adding that Balochistan Levies and Police would accompany the teams to ensure security while in bordering towns Frontier Corpse (FC) would also assist the campaign.