Three-day drive to begin in Balochistan, K-P and FATA
eligious scholars have joined hands with the authorities to convince parents to let the staff administer the drops.PHOTO: INP
Preparations have been made to administer polio and Vitamin-A vaccines to children across Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtukhwa (K-P) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) from Monday.
During three-day campaign in each province, the vaccines will be administered to 2.4 million children in Balochistan, 5.712 million children in K-P and around 1.04 million children in Fata.
“Under the initiative, 9,764 teams will be deployed across Balochistan in addition to 890 fixed sites and 499 transit points,” Coordinator Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) Syed Faisal Ahmed said.
Frontier Corps (FC), police and Levies will provide security during the vaccination.
Besides these efforts, the official added, religious scholars will assist the authorities in convincing parents to let the staff administer the vaccines to their children.
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Ahmed said that sewage samples from Killa Abdullah and Quetta to check the virus came positive.
“We have achieved major goals in combating polio disease but we still need to strive to declare Pakistan a polio-free country,” he maintained.
In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the final decision to carry out the campaign was taken during a meeting held at the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) in Peshawar.
K-P EOC Coordinator Atif Rehman, speaking on the occasion, said that it was the second national immunisation drive of the low transmission season. “No negligence will be tolerated in achieving the target,” he added.
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A total of 18,428 teams have been constituted to carry out the campaign in K-P which include 15,719 mobile, 1,545 fixed, 930 transit and 235 roaming teams while 4,088 area in-charges will be monitoring the teams.
While in Fata, around 4,384 teams comprising 3,990 mobile, 293 fixed and 101 transit teams will participate in the campaign.
Fata is the only region which has achieved 2016-2017 National Emergency Action Plan (NEAP) target of 95% in at least three anti-polio campaigns and not even a single case has emerged since July 27, 2016.
However, a total of five polio cases emerged across the country in 2017 with one case each in K-P, Punjab, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Sindh.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, has reported 11 cases of the virus with cross border population posing a serious threat to Pakistan.
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Besides these efforts, the official added, religious scholars will assist the authorities in convincing parents to let the staff administer the vaccines to their children.
Ahmed said that sewage samples from Killa Abdullah and Quetta to check the virus came positive.
“We have achieved major goals in combating polio disease but we still need to strive to declare Pakistan a polio-free country,” he maintained.
This year, Afghanistan has reported 11 cases of the virus with cross border population posing a serious threat to Pakistan. Five polio cases have been reported in the country so far this year.