Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Coordinator Emergency Operation Center (EOC) Akbar Khan on Sunday said that a three-day anti-polio campaign will be started on August 29 to protect children in 13 high risk districts against polio virus.
The children of up to five years of age would be immunised in all 604 union councils and 67 camps of Internally Displaced Person (IDPs) and Afghan refugee in the districts.
Akbar said that during this campaign, a total of 3,644,000 children would be vaccinated, adding that 12,059 teams of trained health workers have been formed for this purpose who would be supervised by 2,643 area in-charges.
He said that KP government is fully committed to eliminate the menace of polio from the province and despite several challenges, considerable decline has been noticed in polio cases in KP.
“Under the direction of KP Health Secretary Muhammad Abid Majeed, a comprehensive micro plan has been chalked out for the success of this three-day anti polio campaign,” said Akbar.
It is not our target to curtail the number of cases but to completely eliminate polio from this province, he said.
He maintained that the three-day campaign will start on July 25, whereas eight districts, including Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Mardan, Swabi, Swat, Kohat, Karak, Hangu, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, DI Khan and Tank will be the targeted areas. During the campaign, 67 camps of IDPs and Afghan refugees, and all the 604 union councils will be accessed to immunise 3,644,000 children.
He said that out of 12,059 teams, 10,438 are mobile teams, 921 fixed teams, 592 transit teams and 108 roaming teams. Giving district-wise detail, Akbar said that 2,230 teams will work under 148 area in-charges in Peshawar, who will immunise 833,000 children.
He further said that to provide security to polio teams, police and law enforcement agencies will ensure security arrangements in the targeted areas while international agencies like World Health Organisation, UNICEF, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will utilise their resources to make the campaign successful.