Campaign to start in selected areas of FATA

Follow-up drive will be held to cover children who miss immunisation

PESHAWAR: The authorities in FATA Secretariat, dealing with the polio eradication campaigns, are all prepared to carry out a three-day drive, but in selected areas on the tribal belt.

The campaign will be followed by catch-up campaigns so that the children, who are missed during the scheduled drive, can be identified and inoculated against the crippling virus, read an official statement issued on Sunday by FATA Secretariat.

According to the statement, the campaign will be carried out in Frontier Region (FR) Lakki Marwat, FR DI Khan, FR Tank and FR Bannu besides agencies, including Khyber, North and South Waziristan, under the supervision and security provided by political agents, commissioners, paramilitary and military forces.

Constant effort

It stated at least 965,675 children, below the age of five years, have been enlisted and will be vaccinated against the virus, adding 1,888 teams, including 1,744 mobile, 103 fixed and 41 transit teams will be participating in the campaign.

Since the first polio case from the tribal areas in 2016 was reported from South Waziristan Agency, the statement read, authorities dealing with the polio eradication campaigns also planned to carry out a door to door campaign during the same polio drive.

Earlier in June, two polio campaigns were carried out with one as a case response drive in FR DI Khan, FR Tank and South Waziristan Agency. During the campaigns, at least 124,257 children were vaccinated followed by another drive carried out in 36 villages of three de-notified tehsils in South Waziristan Agency wherein Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) was administered to 4,418 children and Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) to 1,222 children.

After a poliovirus case surfaced in South Waziristan Agency, a case response polio eradication campaign — to target the district located adjacent to the tribal areas — was carried out by authorities dealing with polio campaigns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Polio workers immunised at least 193,000 children in Bannu, 195,000 in Kohat, 131,000 in Lakki Marwat, 110,000 in Hangu and 84,660 in Tank.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th, 2016.