Special eight-day polio campaign to start in three high-risk districts of K-P

Starting tomorrow, around 0.6 million children will be vaccinated against crippling polio virus

PESHAWAR: A special eight-day-long polio vaccination campaign will begin in three high-risk districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) on Thursday with the aim to immunise 0.6 million children against the crippling virus.

The decision to carry out a special vaccination campaign was taken during a meeting chaired by K-P Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) Coordinator Akbar Khan.

It was decided that children under the age of five will be given polio drops in 20 union councils (UC) of Hangu district, 47 of DI Khan and 33 UCs of Lakki Marwat.

“The K-P government is fully committed to achieving the ultimate goal of eliminating polio-virus completely from the province,” said Akbar, according to a statement issued by EOC.



Akbar also lauded polio workers for their hard work in ensuring that children are vaccinated. He added that valuable cooperation from partner organisations, parents and media all contributed to the progress in achieving the goal of polio elimination.

According to the statement, around 0.6 million children will be vaccinated – both with oral polio vaccine (OPV) and inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), which is injected.

Trained health worker teams have been deployed across the three districts to ensure coverage and strict security measures have been taken, it added.

This drive is in addition to a national three-day immunisation drive which concluded last week.