PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A three-day anti-polio campaign began in Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) and 13 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday where about 4.669 million children below five years of age would be vaccinated with the help of 12,547 teams.
Officials in Expanded Programme for Immunization (EPI) told the state-run news agency in Peshawar that the campaign was launched in all agencies, frontier regions of FATA including afghan refugees and temporarily displaced persons (TDPs) camps and 13 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the campaign commenced in 13 districts including Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Swabi, Swat, Kohat, Karak, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank and DI Khan today.
Approximately, 36,55,517 children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be administered polio drops with the help of 12,547 teams include 10,918 mobile, 848 fixed, 609 transit and 172 roaming teams.
In FATA, around 1,034,660 children would be vaccinated by 4,317 teams comprising 3,931 mobile, 290 fixed and 96 transit teams.
As many as 22 camps of Afghan refugee would also be visited by vaccinators to administer anti polio drops to their children.
All the wings of health department besides supporting agencies were extending full cooperation to make the campaign successful.
In FATA, the campaign was being conducted under supervision of agency surgeons being carried out in North Waziristan Agency, South Waziristan Agency, Kurram Agency, Khyber Agency, Orakzai Agency, Bajaur Agency and Mohmand Agency besides adjoining Frontier Regions.
The campaign will continue till November 1 followed by catch up of missed children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA. The children with mobile high-risk population will specially be focused for polio vaccination.
FATA has achieved major milestones towards polio eradication during past couple of years but this success is needed to be further cemented through bringing more quality to anti-polio campaigns and meeting every target of National Emergency Action Plan. In 2017, no polio case has been reported from any part of FATA.
The Health Department and other supported agencies have made elaborate arrangements for success of the ongoing campaign. The official said effective security measures were put in place for protection of the vaccinators.
He urged people to bring their children to nearest hospitals and Basic Health Units in case anti polio teams did not arrive at their houses for vaccination.
