As many as 759,395 children were given polio vaccine in the district falling short of the target of 768,143 during the three-day vaccination campaign that ended on Thursday.
A Health Department spokesperson said that 42 parents had refused to allow vaccination of their children. He said teams will be sent to persuade these parents to immunise their children.
Dr Abidi Nasir and Dr Niaz Ahmed of the World Health Organisation and Furqan Tahir of UNICEF visited several areas of the district on the last day and monitored the drive.
Earlier, EDO Fayyaz Hussain Chaudhry met the Shaikh Zayed International Airport manager, Abdus Sattar, to discuss the need for cooperation from every government department.
A polio vaccination counter was set up at the airport, where health workers will give vaccine to every child under the age of five arriving or departing from the country. He asked the airport staff to cooperate with the health workers and help them with “difficult parents”. He said that polio had been eliminated from the entire world except from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 22nd, 2013.