Hitting a roadblock: Polio campaigns held up in three districts

Security concerns remain primary reason behind delay

SHABQADAR/ PESHAWAR:

Children in desperate need of the polio vaccine will have to wait as the campaign was postponed in three districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkha (K-P) due to security concerns on Monday.

Officials said 22 districts would be covered in the first phase from December 8 to 10, while there would be a follow-up campaign on December 11. He pointed out children in Peshawar district were already vaccinated in a campaign on Sunday, adding remaining districts would be covered in the second phase.

Requesting anonymity, officials said polio vaccination campaigns will not be held in Upper Dir, Lakki Marwat and Swabi districts in the first phase. They said the drive in Lakki Marwat was postponed due to the chehlum.

A National Institute of Health, Islamabad official confirmed the campaigns were scheduled for across the province but had to be postponed due to security concerns in Swabi and Upper Dir.



“There is an acute shortage of police personnel in Upper Dir as many had been called for training, while the campaign could not be conducted in Swabi due to some official meetings and operations likely to be carried out in the area,” the official stated.

He said 5.3 million children were to be vaccinated in the campaign across 25 districts of the province. He added 4.9 million children would be vaccinated across 22 districts in the first phase, while the remaining would be administered polio drops in a separate campaign.

“We cannot share the dates fixed for the polio campaigns in the remaining three districts due to security concerns,” the official said.

Provincial health department officials could not be contacted despite several attempts.

On Sunday, some 0.7 million children were administered polio drops in 97 union councils of Peshawar district. Around 4,260 vaccination teams were constituted across the district. For their security, over 7,000 police personnel were deployed and Section 144 was also imposed apart from a ban on motorcycle riding.

Fearful in Charsadda

Like other parts of the province, polio workers feared for their safety in Charsadda after a vaccinator was shot and critically injured on November 24. The young man is still in the hospital.

When asked, Charsadda EPI in charge Dr Farhad Khan confirmed the hesitation of polio workers, saying the recent attack made many of them fearful.

Arranging proper security and the refusal of workers meant the campaign had to be divided into three phases. He said in order to overcome the shortage, workers who had not participated in previous campaigns were also included.

While about 520 children were not immunised in the previous campaign due to the refusal of their parents, authorities plan to ensure they are administered the vaccine at any cost.

A polio health official, requesting anonymity, said most of them feared for their safety after the recent attack. He added most chose to stay away from the polio drive due to their concerns and the fact they had not been paid their dues.

Access to children

A polio campaign in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and Frontier Regions (FRs) plans to vaccinate 821,000 children with help of the local administration and security officials. One of them added around 180,000 children missed out on the vaccine due to a previous ban on vaccination imposed by militants in North and South Waziristan agencies.

However, those children who were forced to flee from their homes along with their families due to military operations were vaccinated at camps for displaced people.

In Mohmand Agency, the political administration of Baizai subdivision held jirgas with tribal elders and it was decided that Class-IV government employees would participate in the polio campaign.

Security would be provided by levies officials and local peace committee members.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2014.