MIRPUR (Kashmir English): A five-day door-to-door anti-polio campaign will begin in Azad Jammu and Kashmir on April 21 (Monday).
The campaign aims to administer polio vaccine drops to every child below the age of five in all districts of Azad Kashmir, including Muzaffarabad, Neelum, Jhelum Valley (Hattian), Bagh, Haveli, Poonch, Sidhnoti, Kotli, Mirpur, and Bhimber.
Provincial Program Manager EPI Azad Kashmir, Dr. Sardar Manzoor Hussain, said that all necessary arrangements have been completed to make this campaign a complete success.
“The state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir has been a polio-free state for the last 24 years, so the main objective of this campaign is to eradicate polio from all over Pakistan,” he said.
Anti-polio campaign to target 742,571 children
During the door-to-door polio campaign, 742,571 children will receive polio vaccine drops, while 4058 mobile teams will administer the vaccination process.
In addition to that, the vaccine campaign will be supported by 450 hospitals and health centers (fixed centers) and 163 transit points, established at all bases, markets, and entry points of the state.
The fix centers, transit points, and mobile teams will be active from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm during the campaign.
Around 326 union council supervisors and 946 area in-charges have been appointed to supervise the campaign and provide necessary equipment to teams.
Moreover, polio control rooms have been established in each district, and a central control room has been set up at the Provincial Program Manager EPI Azad Kashmir Office in Muzaffarabad.
Apart from this, this campaign will also be monitored from the central level by the WHO, the Federal EPI Cell Islamabad, and officers of the Public Health Department.
Dr. Sardar Manzoor Hussain has appealed to parents, citizens, and the media to cooperate with the campaign and ensure every child receives the polio vaccine.
The public is requested to fully cooperate with the staff administering the polio campaign and inform the district control room if any child is left with the vaccination.
The teams of Mirpur District Public Health Department will go door-to-door in the entire district and administer polio drops to all children up to the age of five.
Carrying out the polio campaign in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir is not only a national, religious and moral duty of government functionaries but it is also important for every citizen and people belonging to all schools of thought to play their role in it so that no child below the age of five is deprived of polio drops.
For the five-day campaign, Mirpur district has been divided into 49 union councils/wards and trained supervisors have been appointed to administer polio drops to children up to the age of five.
District Health Officer Mirpur Dr. Fida Hussain has said that by utilizing the dedication and hard work of the polio teams, the mobile teams and fix centers will achieve the target by 100 percent polio eradication from April 21 to April 25.
