Immunisation campaign: Polio drive scheduled for today

754,383 children will be administered vaccines, 4,238 mobile teams, 202 fixed teams will participate in the campaign.

PESHAWAR:

In order to stem the rising tide of polio cases in the province, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Health Department has decided to hold a day-long immunisation campaign in Peshawar district today.

According to health department officials, a Short Interval Additional Dose (SIAD) campaign has been scheduled for Sunday in which 754,383 children will be administered vaccines. They added a total of 4,238 mobile teams along with 202 fixed teams will participate in the campaign which will cover all 97 union councils of the district. A total of 834 people have been designated as area in charges.

Keeping in mind security challenges, the district administration has imposed a ban on motorcycle riding under Section 144. The directives were issued by Deputy Commissioner Zaheerul Islam. According to the official notification issued in this regard, anyone found violating the restriction would be charged under Section 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

A four-day sub-national polio immunisation and case response campaign followed by a two-day catch-up drive concluded on Friday in Bannu, Charsadda, Hangu, Karak, Kohat, Lakki Marwat, Mardan, Nowshera, Swat, Shangla, Tank, Torghar, Abbottabad, Buner, Chitral, Lower Dir, Haripur, Kohistan, Mansehra and Malakand. Over 2,875,642 children were administered polio drops during the drive.

The total number of polio cases in this year has reached a whopping 295 with four new cases reported on Friday.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2014.