Islamabad, September 14, 2015 - Nationwide polio campaign commences to vaccinate more than 35 million children in 163 districts of the country. Approximately 200,000 polio workers are participating in the polio campaign. Prime Minister’s Focal Person on Polio Eradication, Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq monitored the conduct of the campaign in various areas of Islamabad including urban and rural slums.

Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq specially checked the monitoring system of the campaign and issued standing directives of zero tolerance over negligence. “Our priority is to reach out each and every child so that no child remains unvaccinated during this nationwide polio drive”, said Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq during her monitoring visit.

“Nine campaigns are planned during September 2015 to May 2016 and every campaign is critically important to stop polio virus transmission” she further added. Given the importance of Islamabad, Senator Farooq issued directives to CDA Health Directorate to improve the surveillance system in line with the indicators mentioned in the NEAP. “Emergency Operation Centre is available to extend an all out support to provinces and areas in running the smooth nationwide campaign”, coined Prime Minister’s Focal Person on Polio.

Earlier she also visited the peripheral areas of Islamabad to monitor door to door conduct of the campaign. Dr. Hassan Orooj, Director Health Services, Islamabad, briefed the Focal Person on the arrangements made to ensure success of the campaign. Data shared by CDA Health Directorate include vaccination target of approximately 2.9 lac children by more than 2000 polio workers. Vitamin A will also be administered to eligible children in this campaign. Around 27 thousand doses of blue capsules (for infant aged 6-11 months) and 0.21 million doses of red capsules (for children aged 12-59 months) will accordingly be administered to the children in the Islamabad.

The PM’s Polio Focal Person interacted with the polio teams and parents during her field visit to boost their morale and convince them to actively participate in the polio campaigns. She monitored performance of the vaccination staff and also interacted with the community elders to stress upon them to play their required role in community mobilization for vaccination.