PESHAWAR: A special three-day campaign to immunise around 127,000 children in the Khyber Agency has been launched on Monday.

The new campaign contains 2,400 teams of health-workers, guarded by 3,000 security personnel.

The launch, however, has been delayed in Tehsil of Bara, one of the most high risk areas due to security reasons. Health-workers in Landikotal have also refused to participate in the drive as they had not been paid for their efforts in the last 10 campaigns.

Khyber Agency has the highest number of reported polio cases after the restive North Waziristan Agency.

According to data available with Dawn, of the 96 per cent, residents of North Waziristan Agency's Wazir tribe accounted for 34 per cent of the cases.

Explore: War on polio: Is it all spiraling out of control for Pakistan?

Earlier in September, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province had reported 25 polio cases for the year with at least five traced back to Fata.

Fata, which has never been able to vaccinate its targeted population of around nine million since the global polio eradication initiative began in Pakistan in the mid 1990s, has become a real challenge for the government and UN agencies, which are finding it extremely hard to address the issue of reaching unvaccinated children and tackle vaccination refusal cases.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that Pakistan is responsible for nearly 80 per cent of polio cases reported globally.

“The situation is primarily due to a lack of access to children for vaccination, largely owing to a continuing ban on immunisation imposed by militants in the North and South Waziristan, and insecurity and killing of polio workers in the field,” said a recent progress report.

“Pakistan remains the greatest single risk to the achievement of global polio eradication. Issues involving children’s access to immunisation and safety of vaccinators must be resolved to ensure that the programme can be completed,” said the report.