SIALKOT
The Sialkot Health Department has announced the opening of all the public and private sectors schools closed for the summer vacation from July 4 to 7 for administration of polio vaccine to all the schoolchildren during the ongoing 10-day anti measles campaign.
Dr Yadullah, Punjab Government Monitor for Sialkot District, said this at the DHO Office Sialkot. District Health Officer Dr Javaid Warraich was also present.
As many as 687,000 children (between the ages of six months to ten years) have been given anti-measles vaccine during the first four days of the ongoing campaign  as the department had fixed a target of vaccinating 1.1 million children.
Dr Yadullah added that this anti-measles vaccination campaign started in Sialkot district on June 28 and it will continue till July 07, 2013, saying that the first six days of this campaign were for the community while the last four days will be reserved for the schools, as all the schools in tehsil Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial and Pasrur would be opened to administer anti measles vaccination to minor children. Though all the government and private schools were closed for the summer vacation but they will be got opened for four days.
He said that the 70 local NGOs had also helped the health department a lot in social mobilisation, as  more than 500 special vaccinating teams were also giving toffees to all those children being administered the anti-measles vaccination. He revealed that during the first four days of this campaign, the ratio of success of this campaign remained 99.4 percent, as the performance of the Sialkot district was going quite satisfactory in this anti-measles campaign, as the health department’s vaccinating teams were also targeting the nomads, Pathan dwellers and the children of the bricks kilns’ workers.
To a question, Dr Yadullah narrated that 580 cases of measles were reported in Sialkot district during the period of last eight months (from November 2012 to June 2013),  confirming that as many as nine different children died of measles in Sialkot district during this period.