Islamabad: Prime Minister’s Focal person on Polio Eradication, Senator Ayesha Raza appreciated the hard work of frontline workers after conducting surprise visit to various areas of Rawalpindi and Islamabad to monitor the on-going national immunization campaign for polio eradication.
“We owe a lot to these dedicated workers who are selflessly leaving no stone unturned to ensure healthy future for our younger generation,” she observed.
Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq visited various health centres and localities at Rawalpindi-Islamabad border. She also visited sewerage sample collection site and observed vaccination teams working in catchment area.
Appreciated frontline workers for their heroic work. Lauded commitment of Islamabad Administration. Urged enhanced efforts to vaccinate children on the move through transit teams. We are so close and can surely get rid of Polio forever by working together.
Senator Ayesha Raza was accompanied by the National Coordinator for National Emergency Operation Centre Dr Rana Safdar, N Stop manager Brig Soomro, officials of district administration from Islamabad including ADC (G) Islamabad.
Senator visited individual households, checked finger markings of children vaccinated by the teams, checked the working of area supervisors and working of health units in localities around Rawalpindi and Islamabad. She issued directions to the health and local administration to ensure highest quality of the campaign. “Highest quality of campaign in April and May will be of paramount importance because it will help us root out deadly polio virus from Pakistan by the end of low transmission season,” said the Senator.
She further said that presence of virus in environment is a clear risk. “Both Rawalpindi and Islamabad should continue working together in close coordination to ensure vaccination of every child in each campaign,” directed the Senator during her visit.
The current nationwide immunisation campaign against polio will target a total 37.1 million under five children (18.8 million in Punjab, 8.6 million in Sindh, 5.6 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 1.67 million in Balochistan, 1.038 million in FATA, 0.736 million in AJK, 0.223 million in GB and 0.3 million children in Islamabad) by utilizing over 40 million doses of bOPV. In the core reservoir areas covered through Community Based Vaccination (CBV) approach, it will be a 5 days campaign & 2 days catchup, while in the mobile team areas, there will be a 3 days campaign and 1 or 2 day catchup. In Quetta Block, 253,188 children aged between 4-23 months will be targeted with IPV and 316,485 children with OPV (0-23 months).
A total of 260,000 personnel will strive to achieve set targets across Pakistan including 21,680 Area Incharges, 8,907 UC Medical Officers, 181,367 Mobile, 10,059 Fixed and 42,669 Transit team members. The current Polio epidemiology in the country is best ever observed. Cases have declined from 306 in 2014 to 54 in 2015 and only 20 in 2016. Momentum is maintained in 2017 where the current case count of 2 (from Lodhran and Diamer) compares to 8 same point in time during 2016.