PESHAWAR: More than 5.73 million children will be vaccinated against polio in the upcoming round of anti-polio drive starting from April 9, 2018, in all districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) along with Afghan Refugees camps.
This was disclosed in a meeting held here Friday at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) with Coordinator EOC Atif Rehman in the chair. Also, present on the occasion were UNICEF Team Leader Dr Johar, WHO(World Health Organisation) Team Leader Dr Abdi Nasir, BMGF (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) Technical Focal Person Dr Imtiaz Ali Shah and relevant officials of health.
The members of the meeting were briefed in detail about the operational targets of the upcoming campaign of anti-polio vaccination during which 5,737,125 children under the age of five will be immunised besides which vitamin A drops will be given to the children to boost their immunity. A total of 21,126 teams have been constituted out of which 18,300 were mobile teams, 1,552 fixed teams, 982 transit and 292 roaming teams whereas 4,802 area in-charges will be monitoring the teams.
Regarding security measures, the meeting was informed that more than 30,000 security personnel will be deployed at various sensitive and plugging points to provide security cover to the front line workers.
Speaking on the occasion, Atif Rehman said that children were the future of the country and it was the responsibility of the state and the parents to ensure a healthy life for their children.
He directed the staff to ensure a quality campaign and urged parents to fulfil their moral, social and religious obligation towards their children by ensuring the provision of two drops of polio vaccine to their children in every round of the campaign until the disease was stamped out and the circulation of the virus stopped in the country.
Atif Rehman paid rich tributes to the front line workers for their commitment and hard work for polio eradication saying that the efforts of the front line workers will pay off and the disease will be eradicated from the country.
He appreciated the efforts of the teams under the guidance and supervision of the government and technical partners saying that no polio case has been reported from Peshawar for more than two years while one polio case was reported last year compared to eight in 2016 and 68 in 2014.
It is pertinent to mention here that one polio case has been reported from Balochistan so far in 2018.