Polio drive set to inoculate 2.8m children

Eight districts to have partial coverage during the campaign

PESHAWAR: A polio immunisation campaign will soon start across the province, said officials from the health department.

The sub-national immunisation and case response campaign is said to be planned for a majority of the districts in the province. Around 2,875,642 children will be administered polio vaccines during this campaign.

Officials familiar with the matter told The Express Tribune around 8,103 mobile teams, including 748 fixed and 412 transmit teams, will take part in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa drive. A total of 1,836 persons have been designated as area in charges.

Officials said Bannu, Charsadda, Hangu, Karak, Kohat, Lakki Marwat, Mardan, Nowshera, Swat, Shangla, Tank and Torghar districts will have complete campaigns whereas eight other districts—Abbottabad, Buner, Chitral, Lower Dir, Haripur, Kohistan, Mansehra, Malakand—will be covered partially.

“Yes, separate campaigns will be held for those districts which are being covered partially,” said one official requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to the media. He refused to divulge details on why the said eight districts are going to have a partial campaign.

Peshawar

A one-day campaign was held in the provincial capital on Saturday where over 0.75 million children were administered polio drops.

Strict security measures had been adopted during the polio drive. In addition to shutting down several markets on the outskirts of the provincial capital, motorcycles were also banned on the roads. The campaign was held in 97 union councils of Peshawar district.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2014.