Over 4.6m children to be vaccinated against polio in KP

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has planned a three-day anti-polio drive in 18 high-risk districts and Afghan refugee camps of the province from November 12 wherein 4.643 million children will be administered polio drops.

The move has been taken amid a rise in polio cases and new challenges to eradicating the disease in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A special meeting to review operational, logistic and security arrangements of the programme was held at the Emergency Operations Centre here on Friday with Coordinator Abid Khan Wazir in the chair.

Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) Director Dr Akram Shah, representatives of WHO, UNICEF and other organisations were present on the occasion.

The meeting was briefed about the readiness status of the upcoming anti-polio campaign which would be conducted in Peshawar, Nowshera, Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda, Swat, Malakand, Dir Upper, Dir Lower, Chitral, Battagram, Kohat, Hangu, Karak, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan and Tank.

Speaking on the occasion, Abid Khan Wazir said the upcoming campaign was of utmost importance as quality campaigns in the low transmission season could help stop the circulation of poliovirus in the region.

Abid Wazir said in view of virus circulation, deputy commissioner Peshawar had set up separate administrative unit for Shaheen Muslim Town and adjacent union councils in Peshawar to remove hurdles in polio eradication.

Appreciating the hard work of the health workers, he said every child should be vaccinated against polio as it was the only solution to interrupt the transmission of poliovirus.