Three-day polio campaign to begin on Monday

Some 1,029,179 children will be inoculated during the drive

PESHAWAR: A three-day anti-polio campaign will start in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas on Monday.

The campaign is to be followed by another one targeting all missed children which will be held under the supervision of political agents, commissioners and security forces.

As many as 1,029,179 children below the age of five will be inoculated in Fata and Frontier regions. As many as 4,125 teams, comprising 3,668 mobile teams, 326 fixed teams and 131 transit teams will be involved in the immunisation drive.



In a recent Fata Task Force meeting, held at the Governor House, K-P Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said: “Fata is almost polio free and by ensuring high quality campaigns and reaching out to each and every child across the agencies will make eradication a reality.”

The K-P governor also awarded Rs500,000 to EOC Fata team for their exceptional performance and all-out efforts in reducing the number of polio cases in 2016.

Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio and Senator Aysha Raza Farooq, also attending the occasion: “We have come very close to our goal but this should not slow us down rather we should aim to carry out three high quality campaigns in the new year and defeat the virus completely by March 2017 and ensure that we sustain it for the next three years.”

Only 19 polio cases were reported across Pakistan during 2016. Out the total, two cases were from South Waziristan.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2017.