Month-long drive launched in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to vaccinate missed children

PESHAWAR: The Emergency Operations Centre Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has initiated a month-long special campaign to track and vaccinate 100pc missed children through the district administration and health department in the province.

The decision was taken at a meeting with Chief Secretary Dr Kazim Niaz wherein current polio status in the province, challenges and ways forward was discussed in depth.

EOC Coordinator Abdul Basit said that the parental refusal constituted a large chunk of missed children and special strategies had been chalked out to address the issue of refusals with special focus on addressing a misconception, demand and religious refusals.

Giving details of the refusal coverage strategies, Abdul Basit said that 7000 activities had been planned at union councils level across the province to address the field issues and ensure vaccination of missed children.

“The multi-pronged approach strategy has been adopted to cope with the refusal case through visiting door-to-door, hujra and mosque sessions and khuli katchehris” he said, adding, from union council staff, local religious leaders, to deputy commissioners and parliamentarians, would be engaged in the social mobilisation and community mobilization sessions. The campaign had been launched from November 11 till December 15.