September 15, 2008	Monday	Ramazan 14, 1429

PESHAWAR, Sept 14: The World Health Organisation has expressed concern over the risk of childhood ailments posed by lack of immunisation activity in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, asking the government to ensure security to health and humanitarians relief workers to cope with the problem of displaced persons.

Due to lack of security, the monitoring system regarding the immunisation has also crumbled due to which the WHO doesn’t know the magnitude of the diseases, which can snowball into major child health crisis.

Officials of the health department told Dawn that a UN mission during its meeting with the top officials had said that children were at the risk of getting diseases due to lack of immunisation and requested the government to ensure facilitation of immunisations drives during the ceasefires with the militants in the troubled areas.

“The mission had told Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani that situation in the tribal area was not ripe to carry out routine immunisation campaign for eight childhood vaccine-preventable ailments because of the law and order situation there,” officials quoted the WHO country chief Dr Khalif Bile Mohmud.

They said that WHO head briefed the governor regarding the situation of the routine expanded programme on immunisation (EPI) and the problems faced by the relief agencies in helping internally displaced persons of Fata and NWFP.

Officials said that Dr Bile told the governor that during the past one year the immunisation campaign, including polio, had slowed down or stagnated in all Fata agencies. In view of insecurity in Fata the independent monitoring was also weakened, which compromised the quality of these interventions, officials said.

This resulted in the creation of large cohorts of children prone to polio and other vaccine preventable diseases.

During the recent polio campaign the teams were unable to access the children residing in Bajuar and Kurram agencies.

The WHO also told the governor that a possible and successful strategy applied internationally in all conflict afflicted regions was the use of existing and evolving windows of opportunity during the intervals of ceasefire “windows of peace”.

“If the health workers are provided the right support and protection during these occasions, there is a great possibility to cover up these areas and provide badly needed essential health care services to the sick and malnourished children specially under five years of age,” he said, adding that in order to avert those un-favorable health conditions faced by tribal residents, the government might explore new strategies that could ensure the delivery of essential health care services to the high risk population groups of the society.

Officials said that the governor had also appreciated the efforts of the WHO and had assured support for provision of security to the health and humanitarian relief teams in the conflict-wracked tribal areas and emphasised that the services of local jirgas could make a marked difference to reach the needy people through community.

Interventions through jirgas had borne results in the past in Fata, officials quoted the governor as telling the WHO chief.

The governor had also ensured that directives would be issued to the political agents to safeguard health professionals involved in anti-polio campaign in tribal areas.

However, the governor showed concern over the soaring number of confirmed polio cases in NWFP, saying he would also take up the issue with the chief minister for appropriate action.