Over 18,900 children missed in IPV campaigns

Follow-up drives conducted to immunise them against the crippling virus.

PESHAWAR: Over 18,900 children were not inoculated during the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) campaign in Peshawar and Bannu districts, health department officials told The Express Tribune.

According to the officials, the IPV campaign was launched between March 21 and March 28 to enhance the immunity of children against the crippling virus. However, a large number of children were not vaccinated during the campaign.

“This time we did not experience any cases of parents refusing to inoculate their children,” an official said. “On the contrary, we could not vaccinate a large number of children since they were not available when teams visited their house.”



At least, 14,900 children were not vaccinated in Peshawar district while over 4,000 children could not be inoculated in Bannu, he added.

According to the health official, initially around 35,000 children – of which 23,000 were from Peshawar and the rest were from Bannu – had not been inoculated. However, a follow-up campaign was conducted in the areas for three days which helped reduce these numbers.

“We are still conducting the IPV drives,” the official said, requesting anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media. “I hope the data which will be compiled on Thursday (today) reflects our efforts and the numbers of children who were missed are reduced.”

Last month, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa health department decided to carry out IPV campaigns in addition to Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) campaigns to curb the crippling virus. The campaign was carried out in Peshawar and Bannu districts since both regions were considered to be high-risk areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2015.