Case response polio vaccination campaign begins today

PESHAWAR: The three-day case response polio vaccination campaign would be conducted from July 15 to 17 in affected and surrounding districts of Hazara and Malakand divisions.

The children missed during the campaign would be vaccinated on the fourth– the catch-up day of the campaign. “The campaign will be conducted under the supervision of commissioners, deputy commissioners, and district health officers with the support of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police and law-enforcing agencies,” said a press release. A total of 614,590 children will be vaccinated by 2,657 well-trained polio teams, comprising 2,342 mobile teams, 208 fixed teams, 86 transit teams and 21 roaming teams with 641 area in-charges to oversee and monitor vaccination at the local level.

The number of polio cases has soared to 33 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 41 in the country during 2019, so far.

Main reasons for the increase in the polio cases have been routine-immunisation zero dose children and refusing parents which leave children vulnerable to the attack of wild poliovirus and help the virus to circulate in the region. First case response campaign was successfully carried out in June, whereas, to completely put an end to this outbreak, three case response campaigns have been decided including the one, which will be carried in the days to come.

Emergency Operation Centre Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Coordinator Kamran Ahmed Afridi said, “Case response campaign successfully conducted in June 2019 has put a hold to polio cases since no case reported with onset date after the completion of June case response campaign.”

“It has been witnessed time and again that parents believing in propaganda and lies against vaccination, refuse anti-polio drops or leave their children zero dose for essential immunisation has faced the unfortunate incident of polio case at their homes,” he added. The official said, “Oral polio vaccines are the safest and effective vaccine and it is the way to secure our children against polio disease and eradicate poliovirus.”