Over 7.7m children to be administered anti-polio drops in KP

PESHAWAR: Over 7.7 million children under the age of five would be vaccinated against polio across the province during the National Immunisation Days (NID) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) said on Friday.

Special Secretary Health for Polio Eradication/EOC Coordinator Abdul Basit chaired the meeting that reviewed the arrangements for the campaign.

The meeting was informed that 31,851 teams of trained polio workers including 28,414 mobile teams, 1,937 fixed teams, 1,328 transit teams and 172 roaming teams have been deployed for the implementation of this campaign across the province.

Besides, 7,220 area in-charges have also been appointed for the vigilant supervision of these teams to make sure that all children in the target areas are administered with polio drops.

In order to ensure foolproof security of the polio teams around 48,000 security personnel have been deployed in the target areas, the meeting was told.

The first phase of the campaign had already been launched in Lakki Marwat and Dera Ismail Khan from February 26, targeting over 0.6 million children, the officials said, adding approximately 7.1 million children would be vaccinated in rest of the province in the second phase of the drive which had been planned to be launched from March 3.

A supplementary dose of Vitamin-A would also be administered to the eligible children during this campaign.

Speaking on the occasion, the special secretary Health said that the government was committed to eradicating the menace of polio virus from the region and would leave no stone unturned to secure the future of the children.

Emphasizing the significance of vaccinating every eligible child in every campaign, he stressed upon the vigilant supervision and monitoring of the vaccination drive at all levels to ensure the quality of the campaign and identify gaps during the drive.

He appealed to all segments of society particularly the parents, elders, religious scholars, civil society organizations and the media to come forward and extend their full support to the national cause of polio eradication so that the dream of a polio-free Pakistan may come true.