Nearly 0.7m children receive OPV

Polio drive had aimed to inoculate 754,383 in 97 union councils.

PESHAWAR: A one-day polio campaign took place in 96 union councils (UC) of Peshawar on Sunday. Nearly 0.7 million children were inoculated. One UC was covered on Saturday due to a shortage of teams.

Talking to The Express Tribune, District Polio Control Room Focal Person Dr Saleem Khan said the drive aimed to inoculate 754,383 children in Peshawar. However, towards the end of the day, a little under than 0.7 million children were immunised in 96 UCs.



Logistics

To help achieve the goal, the drive had 830 people who were in charge of certain areas and 4,235 teams comprising health workers, lady health workers, teachers and volunteers. Khan said due to a shortage of teams, children in Larama were vaccinated a day before on Saturday.

On Sunday, there was a ban on motorcycle riding in the district between 9am to 5pm. Over 5,000 police personnel were there to provide security for polio workers.

Khan said they provided extra oral polio vaccines to the workers and instructed them to also immunise the children displaced from North Waziristan who are living in Peshawar.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd, 2014.