Polio drive to kick off from Oct 11 in Hyderabad: EDO

HYDERABAD: Executive District Officer (EDO) Health Bux Ali Pitafi has informed that a 3-day anti-polio drive would begin in Hyderabad from October 11.More than 272,000 children will be administered polio drops through 671 mobiles teams, 87 fixed points and 37 transit points, the EDO apprised during a press conference here on Saturday.

According to him 7 supervisors at taluka level, 156 zonal in charges and 23 in area in charges along with representatives of World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) would monitor the campaign.

In reply to a question, Pitafi told that unlike before the international organizations were only providing funds for the manpower while Rs1.4 million for the medicines would be borne by the government.

He said, while replying to a question, that owing to a lack of awareness and inaccessibility the crippling polio disease was still extant in the country. 65 polio cases had been reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 7 in Balochistan, 5 in Sindh and 4 in Punjab, he added. About the health status of flood displaced people taking shelter in Hyderabad's relief camps the EDO acquainted that about 75,000 IDPs were provided treatment by the district health department, while not only outbreak of any disease was thwarted but no case of polio was reported among the IDPs.

Conjunctivitis, an eye disease, had started to spread among the IDPs but it was immediately controlled by the health department, he added. The EDO appealed to the parents to get their children immunized by administering polio drops to them. The district health department has also provided a toll free number (080012012) and advised people to contact on the given number if their area or home had been missed out by the mobile teams.