MIRPUR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 2nd Feb, 2025) All is set to conduct a 5-day integrated nationwide polio eradication in Azad Jammu and Kashmir from tomorrow, February 3, official sources said.
The anti-polio campaign will be conducted till February 07, 2025 without any break to immunize at least 742,500 children under 5 years of age, targeted to be administered the polio vaccine in all 10 districts of the liberated territory, the AJK State Health Department sources told APP on Sunday.
Elaborating, the AJK State Health authorities said that in AJK’s metropolis Muzaffarabad over 130,000 children up to five years old are targeted to be administered the polio vaccines during the drive, to be exercised without any pause, the sources said.
At least four thousand mobile teams of paramedical staff will be constituted to visit door to door to administer the polio vaccine drops during the campaign across AJK, where at least 450 fixed centers at local government hospitals and subordinate health facilities will be established by the State Polio Eradication Committee of the AJK State Health Services Department with the coordination of the World Health Organization (WHO), the sources revealed.
The total staff to be involved in the AJK-wide national drive includes mobile teams comprising over 5000 workers for visiting door to door to immunize the children of and under 5 years of age with the polio vaccine drops during the campaign, the sources underlined.
The fixed centers will be set up at the state-run hospitals, basic health units, and rural health centers, as well as various other spots, to vaccinate the children with the anti-polio drops, the sources elaborated.
A central polio control room will be set up in the office of the Provincial Program Manager EPI in AJK State’s metropolis Muzaffarabad to monitor the drive besides receiving any complaints.
In the lake district of Mirpur, at least 76656 children under 05 years of age will be administered the polio vaccine.
District Health Officer Dr. Fida Hussain told APP here on Sunday that in Mirpur district over 438 mobile teams of paramedics in all 28 zones will visit door to door besides serving at the 41 fixed centers and the 14 transit points to administer the polio vaccine drops to under 5 children.
Earlier, while speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the 5-day campaign held at the District Health Office, inaugurated by the Divisional Commissioner Ch. Mukhtar Hussain here late Saturday, the District Health Officer (DHO) Dr. Fida Hussain said that arrangements for the district-wide nationwide polio eradication drive have been given final touches.
The DHO advised the parents to fully cooperate with the mobile teams of paramedics by getting their children administered with the polio vaccine by the mobile paramedical staff teams.
Besides the Div. Commissioner Ch. Mukhtar Hussain, DHO Dr. Fida Hussain, Medical Superintendent Mirpur Div. HQ Teaching Hospital Dr. Amir Aziz, and others administered polio-vaccine drops to the children under 5 years of age at the formal inaugural ceremony.
It may be added that the state health authorities claimed that there had been no case of polio disease in any child detected in any part of Azad Jammu & Kashmir during the last 25 years.
APP/ahr/378
