Around 0.7m children vaccinated against poliovirus in the city

Polio control focal person claims lady health workers have been paid.


Asad Zia August 31, 2014

PESHAWAR: Roughly 0.7 million children were inoculated against the poliovirus in 97 union councils of Peshawar district on Sunday.

Peshawar Polio Control Room Focal Person Dr Saleem Khan told The Express Tribune 754,083 children were the target of a polio campaign in Peshawar. However, he said, by the time the drive came to a close, close to 0.7 million children had been immunized.

He said 829 area heads and 4,245 people, including health workers, lady health workers (LHW), teachers and volunteers, participated in campaign.

Due to a shortage of staff in some union councils, including Pavakay, Maryamzai and Gulbahar, teams vaccinated children there on Saturday night, said Khan. The district administration had provided full security to the workers for the purpose, he added.

A motorcycle ban was in place in the district between 9am to 5pm, said Peshawar’s focal person. Police personel covered the areas and full security arrangements were in place for polio workers, he added.

On Saturday, the police had said 3,620 regular policemen and 3,620 police volunteers would be provided to the polio drive. An official had told The Express Tribune that at least 129 checkpoints would be established and around 145 police vehicles would be on the roads throughout the polio drive.

Khan said workers were provided with extra vaccines and had been instructed to immunize children who were displaced from North Waziristan and are now living in Peshawar.

Sunday’s campaign took place after several delays, one of which was caused by the boycott of LHWs over the non-payment of their salaries. Protesting against the government, LHWs in Peshawar said they were boycotting the polio campaign as they had not received their salary of three months.

However, the district polio focal person said the LHW’s salaries had been released by the government and they participated in Sunday’s drive. According to Khan, no untoward incident was reported from any area of the district and the campaign was completed without a hitch.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1st, 2014.

COMMENTS

Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ