Over one million children in FATA to be inoculated

Security heightened for upcoming campaign in provincial capital

PESHAWAR: A four-day polio campaign will take place in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and Frontier Regions. Children below the age of five years will be administered polio vaccination.

In high-risk areas, including part of Khyber Agency, South Waziristan, North Waziristan and FR Bannu, the polio drive will continue for seven days. Meanwhile, FATA Secretariat officials in coordination with UNICEF, WHO, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have prepared 3,371 teams comprising 2,980 mobile teams, 297 fixed teams and 94 transit teams, who will administer polio drops to 1,004,807 children in Fata and the FR.

Security in the city

Foolproof security arrangements have been made for the upcoming inoculation campaign in Peshawar. At least 3,620 policemen and more than 3,000 police volunteers would be deployed to protect 1,810 polio teams in the city.



While speaking to The Express Tribune, a police official said three platoons of Frontier Reserve Police will also be deployed in Peshawar, two from Bannu and two from DI Khan. He added 500 policemen would be deployed from Swat, 100 from Buner, 150 from Lower Dir, 150 from Upper Dir and 150 from Shangla districts.

As yet, there have been 15 cases of the crippling disease in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in 2015. While some cases might still being processed at the National Institute of Health Islamabad, the current breakdown stands at: two cases from Tank, one each from Lakki Marwat, Charsadda and Nowshera, and 10 in Peshawar.

At least 16 polio cases surfaced in Fata. Of them, one polio case was reported in North Waziristan, two in South Waziristan, two in FR Peshawar and 11 in Khyber Agency. The rate of refusals in Fata remained below 2%.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2016.