Crucial drops: Polio drive in 19 districts

Peshawar and Swabi to be covered next week

PESHAWAR: A schedule has been issued by the provincial health department for upcoming polio vaccination drives in the province. With the aim to immunise around 3 million children under the age of five, a campaign is already under way in 19 districts.

According to officials of the health department, Peshawar and Swabi have been left out of the drive for the moment. Children in these districts will be vaccinated in a campaign next week.

However, no drive will be held in four out of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s 25 districts. “We are not saying the 21 districts (the two campaigns will cover) are high risk areas. We are initially focusing on areas from where cases are being reported,” said a health official, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media. “This does not mean the department will not hold such campaigns in the remaining districts in future.”



The official said more than 13,000 teams have been constituted to administer the crucial polio drops to 3 million children. “For the first drive, the administrations of 19 districts have been directed to provide security to polio workers.”

In the most recent polio drive which was held earlier this month, nearly 31,000 children were left unvaccinated. Parents of 6,971 children had refused polio drops for their children, whereas 23,954 children were not available when the teams visited their houses for inoculation. Peshawar reported the highest number of refusals out of the 19 districts that were covered — 3,945.

The total number of confirmed polio cases in the country has thus far reached 22 with nine cases from K-P, six from Fata, four from Sindh and three from Balochistan. Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2015.