SALEEM SHAHID
QUETTA: Afghan health authorities have decided to launch a polio vaccination campaign in their border areas of Spin Buldak and Vesh Mandi along with the Balochistan health department from Monday.
The three-day campaign will be launched across Balochistan, during which Vitamin-A drops will also be administrated to the children under the age of five years.
A meeting of Pakistani and Afghan health officials in this regard was held on the border. Qila Abdullah District Health Officer Dr Rasheed Nasar led the delegation which also included officials from the World Health Organisation and Unicef.
Both Pakistani and Afghan officials attended the meeting without crossing the border. “It was the first-ever such meeting witnessed on the Pak-Afghan border,” a senior official of the health department said.
The officials of the health and other departments concerned from both sides discussed launching of the anti-polio campaign on both sides of the border.
The Afghan health officials informed Pakistani authorities that they would also launch an anti-polio campaign the same day in Spin Buldak and Vesh Mandi areas.
It was decided that Pakistani and Afghan health workers would administer anti-polio drops to the children under the age of five who would cross the border during the three days.
Meanwhile, Balochistan Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) coordinator Syed Faisal Ahmed said all arrangements had been completed for vaccinating over 2.4 million children during the campaign. He said 9,287 teams would be deployed for the campaign.
“We have adopted strict security measures to prevent any untoward incident. Frontier Corps, police and Levies personnel will be deployed to protect the polio workers,” he said, adding that religious scholars would also participate in the campaign to persuade the parents who normally refused to allow vaccination of their children.
Published in Dawn December 19th, 2016