ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: Federal Minister for Health Mir Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani kicked off the first nation-wide polio campaign for 2009 here on Monday by vaccinating children in Bhara Kahu area in the outskirts of the federal capital.

Flanked by senior health officials and head of the National Polio Eradication Programme Dr Altaf Bosan, the minister visited households along with the polio team and immunised children below the age of five with polio vaccine.

He talked to the families residing in the nearby localities and asked them about the performance of the polio teams and whether they were visiting their houses during the polio campaign.

The polio initiative is the top priority area in the health sector and every effort would be made to ensure that no child is missed during the campaign, the minister said while talking to polio teams and health officials present on the occasion.

Mr Jhakrani also visited a bus stop and a petrol pump where special polio points had been set up. He said those children who were traveling with their families during the polio campaign or were in transit were often missed. Special arrangements had been made at bus stops, railway stations, airports, toll plazas on motorways, highways, district crossing points and Pak-Afghan border to vaccinate children.

The minister appealed to the people to ensure that all their children under five years of age received polio vaccine during the campaign.

Earlier, District Health Officer, Islamabad, Dr Amir Zada Khan, while receiving the minister at Bhara Kahu, briefed him about the elaborate arrangements made by the health department for the campaign.

Country Head of World Health Organisation Dr Khalif Bile and Unicef Country Representative Martin Mongwanja were also present on the occasion.

APP ADDS: The three-day anti-polio drive also started in Skardu and Ghanche districts to save the children of Baltistan region from the crippling disease.

In Skardu district, some 53,000 children would be provided anti-polio drops and for this purpose, 248 mobile teams would perform their duties in this remote part of the mountainous region.

Similarly, in Ghanche district, 155 mobile teams would be responsible to give drops to some 1,700 children of the area.

District health officers, while talking to this agency, said a number of fixed points had been established in both the districts of the Northern Areas to make the anti-polio drive a success.

The DHOs said zonal supervisors and area in charges were supervising the campaign in their respective duty areas.

Meanwhile, deputy commissioners and DHOs of both the districts had requested parents, religious scholars, teachers and notables of the area to cooperate with the mobile teams to make the drive successful.