Rawalpindi
District Health Department taking yet another special initiative after detection of a confirmed polio case in the district has launched a six-day anti-polio campaign in two tehsils including Taxila and Gujar Khan from Tuesday.
It is important that the District Health Department is already going to launch three-day anti-polio campaign followed by a catch-up activity on fourth day from August 5 in Tehsil Murree and Tehsil Rawalpindi along with city and cantonment areas of the town.
“The on-going six-day anti-polio drive is unique as it is sole initiative of the District Health Department,” said District Health Officer Dr Khalid Randhawa while talking to ‘The News’ Tuesday. He said that the WHO would only provide vaccine for the campaign in Taxila and Gujar Khan while all other resources including manpower and logistics would be of the health department.
To a query, he said that the District Health Department decided to launch anti-polio campaign in Taxila taking it as gateway to Punjab from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa while Gujar Khan was included in the special programme because the confirmed P3 Polio virus case recently detected was a resident of the area located on the border of Gujar Khan.
He added that the District Health Department is launching anti-polio drives in specific tehsils for the first time to completely wipe away the risk emerged after detection of the confirmed polio case in the district. On July 11 this year, National Institute of Health, Islamabad, confirmed one Shahzeb Latif son of Muhammad Latif, a resident of Village Bhall, Union Council Chauntra in Tehsil Rawalpindi positive as a case of polio, however, the nine-year-old child did not develop paralysis.
Dr Randhawa said that the anti-polio drive in tehsils Gujar Khan and Taxila would be concluded on August 8 while the drive in Rawalpindi and Murree would be from August 5 to 8. “Evaluation of both the drives would be done by the WHO,” he said.
District Health Department taking yet another special initiative after detection of a confirmed polio case in the district has launched a six-day anti-polio campaign in two tehsils including Taxila and Gujar Khan from Tuesday.
It is important that the District Health Department is already going to launch three-day anti-polio campaign followed by a catch-up activity on fourth day from August 5 in Tehsil Murree and Tehsil Rawalpindi along with city and cantonment areas of the town.
“The on-going six-day anti-polio drive is unique as it is sole initiative of the District Health Department,” said District Health Officer Dr Khalid Randhawa while talking to ‘The News’ Tuesday. He said that the WHO would only provide vaccine for the campaign in Taxila and Gujar Khan while all other resources including manpower and logistics would be of the health department.
To a query, he said that the District Health Department decided to launch anti-polio campaign in Taxila taking it as gateway to Punjab from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa while Gujar Khan was included in the special programme because the confirmed P3 Polio virus case recently detected was a resident of the area located on the border of Gujar Khan.
He added that the District Health Department is launching anti-polio drives in specific tehsils for the first time to completely wipe away the risk emerged after detection of the confirmed polio case in the district. On July 11 this year, National Institute of Health, Islamabad, confirmed one Shahzeb Latif son of Muhammad Latif, a resident of Village Bhall, Union Council Chauntra in Tehsil Rawalpindi positive as a case of polio, however, the nine-year-old child did not develop paralysis.
Dr Randhawa said that the anti-polio drive in tehsils Gujar Khan and Taxila would be concluded on August 8 while the drive in Rawalpindi and Murree would be from August 5 to 8. “Evaluation of both the drives would be done by the WHO,” he said.