KARACHI: The city administration has decided to seek the assistance of union council (UC) chairmen, councillors and other elected local government representatives to ensure vaccination of all children missed in anti-polio drives and those whose parents had previously refused vaccination, in low-coverage union councils of the metropolis.
The decision was taken during a visit by Commissioner Syed Hassan Naqvi to Manghopir on Thursday to review the ongoing polio vaccination campaign.
‘Special attention is being given to the vaccination of children whose parents have previously refused vaccination,’ the commissioner said while addressing a meeting with elected local government representatives, organised by the Town Municipal Administration Manghopir at Naya Nazimabad Gymkhana.
Under the new arrangement, polioteams under the supervision of the district administration will directly contact parents in affected and lowcoverage UCs to ensure that all eligible children are vaccinated, while local government representatives will play an active role in persuading parents and ensuring 100 per cent coverage of refusal and missed children.
The commissioner said that significant progress was being made in efforts to eliminate poliovirus from Karachi.
He said that for the first time, a distinctive strategy was being adopted in Manghopir Town to make the polio campaign more effective and resultoriented.
Under the strategy, teams had been divided into three zones, while elected representatives had been assigned the responsibility of meeting parents and ensuring vaccination of children, he added.According to a handout issued by the commissioner’s office, three teams in Manghopir Town were conducting door-to-door visits to ensure complete coverage. The assistance of religious scholars was also being sought to create awareness through mosques regarding the importance of administering polio drops.
The commissioner said that UC chairmen and councillors had been provided with complete lists, including names and addresses, of refusal and missed children as well as households with low coverage in their respective areas.
The meeting was informed that councillors of UC-14 and adjoining wards had been assigned a target of 83 children, most of whom had been covered during the past three days.
As many as 45 children still remained whose families had refused vaccination during the previous six campaigns.Staff Reporter