Jirgas agree to support anti-polio drive in Khyber Agency

Official says deaths of children not related to vaccination

BARA: Jirgas held in all the three tehsils of Khyber Agency on Monday agreed to support the upcoming anti-polio campaign. Jirgas were part of the community mobilisation effort before the first campaign of the year that would be launched on January 16.

The Health Department officials presented detailed investigation reports of the incidents, lab results of the blood samples of affected children and lab reports of the vaccine used during the December anti-polio drive. The elders, including business community, religious scholars and journalists thanked the government for promptly undertaking the investigation and sharing the reports with them. "All the investigative reports (both field and laboratory) confirmed that reported deaths of children or sickness among certain children within the agency had nothing to do with polio or any other vaccine," said Political Agent Khalid Mehmood while addressing the Agency Polio Eradication Committee (APEC)/Civil Military Coordination Committee (CMCC).

"The deaths of children were caused due to other medical complications including pneumonia, epilepsy/head injury or premature birth," he added. The jirgas were chaired by representatives of political administration and participated by local representatives of various media outlets, local elders, officials from Fata Health Department and Emergency Operation Centre (EOC).

These were attended by heads of all the major clans from the relevant tehsils of Khyber Agency. On the directives of the political agent, three community focal persons were appointed in each of three tehsils. The focal persons will be available for community elders and members throughout the campaign for receiving their complaints and forwarding the same to agency surgeon for investigations and resolutions. The Fata Health Department and EOC Officials shared the results of forensic, preliminary and inquiry report with local elders and journalists.