RAWALPINDI: The district health department has launched a five-day anti-polio drive in two tehsils, Rawalpindi and Taxila, from Tuesday. The campaign will target children, specifically those displaced from North Waziristan, who are now living in the Rawalpindi district.
The education department, which was to provide staff for the campaign, delayed doing so by two to three days. “The education department told the health department that teachers are off for summer vacations and it would be difficult to call them back,” a senior official told Dawn.
As a result, he said the health department had to stop its anti-dengue drive in 46 union councils (UCs) and has had to call in employees from 10 dispensaries around the city in order to staff the campaign. He added that members of the city’s food inspection teams were also participating in the anti-polio campaign.
Executive District Officer Health, Dr. Zafar Iqbal Gondal, said that a total of 1,022 teams have been formed to administer the vaccine to 250,000 children within the two tehsils.
Enlist prayer leaders to help reduce refusals in 106 UCs
“Murree, Gujar Khan, Kahuta, Kotli Sattian and Kalar Syedan are not included in the campaign. The basic aim of the campaign is to vaccinate the children coming from NWA to stay with family in Rawalpindi,” Gondal said.
He said that the health department began a registration campaign for children coming from NWA but the campaign failed to get adequate information.
“We have decided to launch a door-to-door campaign in those parts of Rawalpindi where people coming from FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) have settled. This way, the teams will administer anti-polio drops to all children,” he said.
He said that most Pashto-speaking people were settled in Pirwadhai, Cantonment areas like Naseerabad and around Kohinoor Mills, Golra Mor, and Taxila. He added that the campaign has been launched in 106 UCs.
“Refusal cases were higher in the past, but the situation is under control compared to last year. The health department is engaging prayer leaders and has invited people to bring their children to the homes of local prayer leaders to assure them that there is nothing harmful about the vaccine,” he said.
Dr. Gondal said that two more campaigns have been planned for high-risk UCs during Ramazan. He said that the teams are aiming to vaccinate more than 95 percent of children in these UCs before Eid.
He said that local medical practitioners have also been engaged to educate people on the important of vaccinating children, and added that teams will be available around the clock if private medical practitioners need to have patients immunized.
Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2014