MAYOR Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar has encouraged parents and guardians to have their children aged zero to 10 (0-119 months) vaccinated against polio, during the week-long simultaneous anti-polio campaign.

The campaign dubbed as “Sabayang Patak Kontra Polio,” will kick off Monday, January 6 and ends in January 12.

The campaign will be spearheaded by the City Health Office (CHO) in collaboration with the Department of Health (DOH).

Salazar said the week-long campaign will be a combination of house-to-house, fixed post and special vaccination sessions.

The fixed posts are located at the KCC Mall, Citimall, Mc Donald-San Jose outlet, Mindanao Central Sanitarium, Zamboanga City Medical Center, Labuan Public Hospital, Zampen Hospital, Zamboanga Doctor’s Hospital, West Metro Medical Center, Ciudad Medical Hospital, Airport, Port Area (seaport) and the Integrated Bus Terminal in the village of Divisoria.

Salazar said that all children aged 10 years and below, regardless of immunization status will be vaccinated with bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV).

She said the campaign targets 205,507 children from the city’s 98 villages. She said the conduct of the massive anti-polio campaign was brought about by the re-emergence of a poliovirus type 1 in Maluso, Basilan province.

The week-long activity will be simultaneously held in Zamboanga City, Basilan province, including Isabela City, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Sultan Kudarat.

The January 6 to 12 schedule is the first round while second and third rounds will be on February 17 to March 2 and March 23 to April 4, respectively. (SunStar Zamboanga)