First national polio immunisation campaign tees off in 146 districts

Campaign rescheduled in many areas due to poor weather conditions

Islamabad

The first national polio immunisation campaign of 2017 teed off Monday in 145 of 166 districts, agencies, and towns of Pakistan.

The campaign has been rescheduled in several parts of the country for a variety of reasons including lack of preparation, heavy snowfall, and induction trainings, etc.

As such, the campaign in Quetta, Pishin, Killa Abdullah, Wana subdivision and Khyber has been rescheduled from January 23-29. The campaign has been postponed in 16 districts of Balochistan due to heavy snowfall; these areas are Zhob, Sherani, Barkhan, Musa Khail, Killa Saifullah, Loralai, Bolan, Sibbi, Jhal Magsi, Ziarat, Harnai, Mastung, Kalat, Khuzdar, Washuk and Kharan. Here too, January 23 has been closed as the revised date for the campaign.

Moreover, there are 47 snow-bound Union Councils (UCs) in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (14 in Chitral, 8 in Abbottabad, 13 in Dir Upper, 7 in Torghar, and 5 in Mansehra), 3 UCs in Gilgit-Baltistan (2 in Skurdu and 1 in Astore), 3 UCs in Neelum Valley in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and 4 UCs in Fata (3 in NWA, 1 in Kurram). Furthermore, district Kambar, 19 UCs of Jacobabad and 4 zones of CDA also postponed the campaign for a day due to heavy rainfall. The campaign has also been extended for two days in all districts of AJK due to weather conditions.

Around 37.7 million children under five years of age are being targeted during the campaign; they include 18.76 million children in Punjab, 8.6 million in Sindh, 5.6 million in KP, 2.45 million in Balochistan, 1.03 million in Fata, 0.73 million in AJK, 0.224 million in Gilgit-Baltistan, and 0.3 million in Islamabad.

Around 42.24 million doses of bOPV will be utilised during the campaign. There will be a five-day campaign and a two-day catch-up in community-based vaccination UCs, and a three-day campaign and 1-2 day catch-up in mobile team areas.

Around 250,000 personnel are participating in the campaign including 24,045 area in-charges, 7,508 UC medical officers, and 188,134 mobile, 10,459 fixed and 12,076 transit team members. Pakistan closed 2016 with 20 cases of polio. No case has been reported so far in 2017.