Govt begins anti-polio campaign in North Waziristan as WHO denies halting immunisation campaign in Balochistan after Wednesday’s killings
As the provincial government began an anti-polio campaign in the troubled North Waziristan Agency on Thursday, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department said that parents of 12,000 children in Peshawar had refused to vaccinate their children against polio during a drive that launched on November 23.
The health department report states that about 754,000 children were to be administered polio drops in the one-day polio campaign in Peshawar but only about 646,000 children were vaccinated.
According to the report, 4,260 vaccination teams were arranged but, due to security concerns, no team conducted vaccination in Matni.
Meanwhile, the campaign, targeting 39,000 children in North Waziristan, was initiated under huge international pressure to vaccinate every child in the country, despite more than two years of a dangerous security situation in the region.
The military has been carrying out an offensive against militant strongholds in the area since June.
“The campaign has been started in the region where military is not fighting against the militants. There is no timeframe for this campaign and it will continue until we vaccinate all 39,000 children,” doctor Sadiq Khan, in charge of the health department in North Waziristan, told reporters.
Adnan Khan, a government spokesman, said that the authorities had not set a timeframe for the campaign due to the security situation.
On Tuesday, a similar campaign was started in the neighbouring South Waziristan tribal district along the Afghan border.
WHO NOT HALTING CAMPAIGN:
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) denied that it was suspending operations in Balochistan following the cold-blooded murder of four polio vaccinators in Quetta on Wednesday.
“WHO would like to categorically dispel the notion of closing down or withdrawing its operations in Balochistan or anywhere else in Pakistan,” said a statement from Dr Michel Thieren, WHO representative in Pakistan.
Well-placed sources in the WHO’s polio programme had earlier claimed that the organisation was suspending its activities in Balochistan following the murders in Quetta and looming threats to polio workers in Balochistan.
However, the press statement later in the day claimed that the organisation was only applying “a standard and routine measure to limit its staff and contractor’s exposure to any unsettled security situation”.
“Such [a] measure intends to take the needed time to analyse in depth the event and its aftermath, and to explore working environment ahead of a prompt reversal of the measure taken,” said the statement from the WHO representative.
The statement said the WHO remained committed to its goal of eradicating polio from Pakistan.
Meanwhile, UNICEF has also scaled down its activities in Balochistan because of security threats to its staff.
A UNICEF officer said that communication programmes of the organisations were halted for an indefinite period in the province.
“We will not be launching programmes to motivate the people to administer polio drops to their kids,” he said.
Similarly, UNICEF has also forbidden its staff from visiting far-flung areas of Balochistan in the aftermath of the polio workers’ killing in Quetta.
“We have also stopped our outreach programme,” he added.