PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department is hiring more female vaccinators to reach out to the targeted children during the Sehat Ka Insaf programme, especially in Hayatabad Township, where immunisation couldn’t be carried out to the desired level in the past two campaigns, the relevant officials said on Wednesday.

Under the SKI initiative launched last month, oral polio vaccine has been administered to around 700,000 children in Peshawar but still there’re problems in some places like Hayatabad, where vaccination rate is 80 per cent.

A meeting held under the director-general (health services) took exception to the unavailability of female vaccinators in the campaign and decided to contact the Public Health School, Nursing School and girls schools in Hayatabad to access kids, who were missed in earlier campaigns.

There’s only one Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) centre in Hayatabad Medical Complex for the whole township.

A basic health unit in Phase I has also been offering vaccination of children.

It was decided to ensure that the children get vaccination for nine vaccine-preventable childhood ailments in both the centres, while door-to-door immunisation will be carried out by vaccinators.

Many times, vaccinators missed children either because men were absent in the house or children were asleep.

The officials said the female vaccinators could go inside houses to immunise children even if the latter were asleep.

For the purpose, the health department is sending request to the deputy commissioner of Peshawar about the plan of obtaining the services of female nurses, teachers and students, who could be engaged in the campaign to reach out to the targeted population.

The Hayatabad Township, Cantonment Town and University Town are low-risk localities for polio but officials said children in the said areas should be vaccinated against other diseases.

The staff will be hired on permanent basis for participation in every campaign.

The officials said some volunteers took part in one campaign and didn’t turn up for the next campaign affecting the vaccination because those replacing them didn’t know about the status of vaccination status of children in previous campaigns.

They said the department also preferred permanent vaccinators to target missed and refusing children in the supplementary campaign that takes place after every vaccination campaign.

“We are trying to get the services of the people on permanent basis for the remaining six one-day rounds, so they could reach all children in their specified areas of work in Peshawar,” an official said.

He said involvement of female vaccinators in the campaign would ensure that all children were vaccinated at their homes.

The officials said there were around 12,000 vaccinators, who were taking part in the SKI campaigns in Peshawar.

They said six rounds of vaccination had taken place in the city where local vaccinators mainly members of PTI Tabdeeli Razakaars and schoolteachers volunteered their services.

According to officials, every vaccinator/volunteer is paid Rs500 per day pulling in large number of people.

They said previously, security concerns had hindered the campaigns as the people were afraid of becoming part of the campaign for fear of life.

The officials, however, said security had improved due to which people were willing to join the drive.

They said the chief minister had asked female MPAs and leaders of his party to stay in contact with the campaign getting underway in Swabi, Mardan and Charsadda.

According to them, the government has decided to extend the SKI programme from April 6 to the said districts due to severe shortage of vaccinators.

The officials said it took almost 10 days for every districts to run anti-polio campaign as most of the killings in the polio-related incidents had taken place there.

They said under foolproof security, single-day campaigns would take place there like Peshawar and that the deputy commissioners would spearhead the campaign in their respective districts.