Nearly one million children to be vaccinated in FATA

Last campaign in January saw 142 refusal cases


Our Correspondent February 12, 2016
PHOTO: REUTERS

PESHAWAR: A four-day polio campaign has been scheduled for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Frontier Regions (FR), read a statement issued by the FATA Secretariat on Friday.

The statement read children in high-risk areas, including Khyber Agency, South Waziristan, North Waziristan Agency and FR Bannu, will be vaccinated.

The numbers

Polio drops will be administered to 981,040 children. At least 3,078 teams have been formed for the purpose. These include 2,718 mobile, 270 fixed and 90 transit teams which will inoculate children under the supervision and protection of political agents, commissioners, paramilitary and military forces.



It will be the second polio campaign in Fata in 2016. During the first campaign held in January around 98% of the target children were successfully vaccinated, while only 142 cases of refusal were noted, just 0.015% of the target. At least 16 polio cases were reported from the tribal areas in 2015.

Also on Friday, a workshop was held at a local hotel to sensitise the media on the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) and routine immunisation. The event was organised by Mediation in collaboration with the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) and Unicef.

EPI K-P Programme Manager Dr Ayub Roz informed workshop participants IPV injections were administered at camps initially. However, it has now become part of routine immunisation. He said IPV strengthened the immunity of children against poliovirus, adding oral polio vaccines were also administered to the children.

Ayub Roz stressed the need to spread awareness about routine immunisation. He hoped poliovirus would be eradicated by mid-2016. He said the media would play a vital role in sensitising the public. The first case of polio in 2016 was reported from Karachi, Sindh on February 8.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13th,  2016.

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