Amidst volatile security, immunisation drive to skip North and South Waziristan, Mohmand and part of Khyber agency. PHOTO: FILE
Health authorities launched a fresh polio vaccination drive in the restive tribal belt on Monday, but officials warned that nearly 370,000 children are likely to miss out because of security problems.
At the start of May the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a global ‘public health emergency’ after new polio cases began surfacing and spreading across borders from countries, including Pakistan.
The tribal regions are the epicentre of polio cases and the government has set up checkpoints to ensure anyone leaving the belt is immunised.
A three-day vaccination drive began on Monday in four tribal regions, a senior government official in Peshawar, told reporters with more than 620,000 children slated to receive polio drops.
But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, warned that children in three of the four targeted areas “would not be able to receive polio drops because of militancy and opposition to immunisation”.
Violence has badly hampered the campaign to stamp out polio in Pakistan, where militants with strongholds in tribal areas, see vaccination campaigns as a cover for espionage.
“A total of 369,039 in three agencies would not receive polio drops because of the law and order situation,” the official said. The three agencies in question are North Waziristan, South Waziristan and Mohmand, the official said. Part of the fourth agency, Khyber, would also be affected.
Two senior health officials confirmed the latest drive and figures and told AFP that WHO and UNICEF was helping and providing logistic support in the polio campaign.
In Mohmand Agency, health officials said they have suspended the inoculation campaign following the discovery of five unidentified bodies from Pandiyali tehsil.
Local sources said the bodies were found in the Tamazai area and have been shifted to Ghallanai Headquarters Hospital. On Saturday, six security personnel were killed in an IED blast in Tamazai. Subsequently an indefinite curfew was imposed in Safi and Khawaizai tehsils as well as in the Kamali area of Halemzai tehsil.
The agency’s health department has postponed the vaccination drive due to the curfew, according to FSMO Dr Shabir Khan. He added that an estimated 90,000 children were due to be vaccinated during the drive which will be reorganised once the curfew is lifted.
The suspended polio drive intended to reach 620,000 children in three days, according to the senior government official in Peshawar.
Pakistan is one of only three countries where the crippling disease remains endemic. Some 56 people, including health workers and police officials, have been killed in attacks on vaccination teams since 2012.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 27th, 2014.
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