Immunisation drive postponed due to insufficient security

Fifth polio case of the year surfaces from North Waziristan Agency.

PESHAWAR:

This year’s fifth polio case was confirmed on Sunday in a child from North Waziristan Agency (NWA), while the vaccination campaign scheduled to begin in Peshawar was postponed due to incomplete security arrangements.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad confirmed the virus in 13-month-old Nadia, a resident of Norak, Bura Khel village in Miranshah tehsil of NWA. The child is infected with the wild poliovirus (type-1).



With the new case the total number of polio cases in Pakistan in 2014 has increased to five, all recorded from North Waziristan Agency. The children are between the ages of eight-19 months and did not receive any dose of the oral polio vaccine.

No supplementary immunisation activities have been conducted in North and South Waziristan agencies since June 2012 leading to an explosive polio outbreak in the region.

Drive postponed

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) Assistant Director Dr Kalimullah Khan told The Express Tribune that Sunday’s drive could not start because of insufficient security arrangements for vaccinators.

“The arrangements had been finalised, however, the district administration decided to postpone it at the last minute citing security concerns,” said Dr Khan. He added a large number of security personnel had been deployed at the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl sit-in against the provincial government therefore there were lesser personnel available to accompany polio workers.

“We will now launch the campaign later during which 0.52 million children will be vaccinated and nearly 25,000 workers will participate,” claimed Dr Khan.

Requesting anonymity, an official of the health department said they had requested the education department to help in conducting the campaign by providing teachers, however, following various attacks on polio workers and killings of security personnel, teachers had refused to participate citing low wages and security concerns.

The health official, however, claimed over 9,000 teachers had agreed to be a part of the drive on Saturday after holding successful negotiations with the government.

An official of the Chief Minister’s Polio Monitoring Cell told The Express Tribune that the campaign had been postponed in 97 union councils of Peshawar and will be resumed shortly after proper security planning is carried out.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2014.