Polio vaccination campaign kicks off in KP

PESHAWAR: The five-day anti-polio vaccination campaign was kicked off in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday with a target of administering drops to 6.5 million children.

The campaign was launched at the Emergency Operation Center (EOC) KP by a woman journalist who administered drops to a child as Advisor to KP CM on Health, Ehtesham Ali had to rush to his hometown at the last moment due to some pressing engagement.

Speaking to media persons, Coordinator EOC KP, Abdul Basit, said that polio vaccination would be carried out in all the districts of the province, except for Kurram due to the law and order situation there.

In all, a total of 42,000 teams of vaccinators will participate in the campaign who will be guarded by around 54000 policemen, he told newsmen.The official said in the current year, so far 62 cases of polio had been reported in the country out of which 18 were in KP.

Sharing a break-up of 18 polio cases, Abdul Basit said out of these 18 polio infection cases, 16 were reported from southern districts where access to children was challenging due to bad law and order situation.

Out of 16 cases in southern districts, around nine were reported only in Darazanda Tehsil of Dera Ismail Khan because of less coverage of children in the area.He said the cohort of children below five years of age in Darazanda Tehsil is around 17,000 who are at risk because the area has missed coverage in around three campaigns in the current year.

The EOC coordinator admitted that around 60,000 to 70, 000 children were zero dose in the province because of refusals by parents or missing newborns from essential vaccination.Similarly, the Big Catchup campaign would also be launched by EPI soon after the completion of the polio vaccination drive to cover the unvaccinated children.

He said out of nine sites in Peshawar where environmental samples of poliovirus were found, eight had been cleared. The official said only one site in the provincial metropolis (Peshawar) was showing the presence of poliovirus in sanitation water, but the immunity of children is strong, preventing them from contracting the crippling disease.