PESHAWAR: A three-day campaign against polio began in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan simultaneously on Monday.

The campaign for Fata was launched during a special ceremony at the Fata Secretariat in Peshawar.

Fata additional chief secretary Azam Khan inaugurated it by administering anti-polio drops to children in the presence of Fata director (health services) Dr Zafeer Hussain and senior Fata Secretariat officials.

During the campaign, around 0.85 million children will be vaccinated against polio all over Fata from January 19 to January 21 and that 47,000 of them are in North Waziristan Agency.

Inaccessibility to certain troubled tribal areas has been reduced to three per cent for the current campaign from the previous 30 per cent.

Around 0.85m to be vaccinated in Fata, 0.217m in GB

Around 18,500 children in Khyber Agency’s Tirah, Mastak, Nari Baba, Kamberkhel and Sandana areas and around 6,500 in Shaktoi area will miss vaccination due to the inaccessibility.

A special campaign is being planned for Bara and it is likely to begin in the last week of the current month.

In all, 2,653 teams, including mobile, fixed and transit ones, and consisting of trained polio volunteers, will vaccinate children in Fata, including both North and South Waziristan agencies.

In FR Bannu, inactivated polio campaign was carried out from January 5 to January 11 covering more than 98 per cent children between the age of four and 23 months, including those of North Waziristan. In Bajaur Agency, too, the three-day anti-polio campaign was launched amid tight security.

An official of the local health department said 682 teams consisting of health workers, teachers, volunteers and government officials were taking part in the campaign to vaccinate 223,390 children under the age of five years across the agency.

He said the local administration had made foolproof security measures for the protection of vaccinators.

Hundreds of children in some parts of Salarzai will miss vaccination over the suspension of the campaign over delicate law and order situation in the tehsil.

Also in the day, the three-day polio campaign was launched in selected union councils of Mansehra and Batagram districts amid tight security.

In Mansehra, the ongoing polio campaign is limited to only 28 of the total 59 union councils for security reasons.

In all, around 150,000 children under the age of five years will be given anti-polio drops in the district.

In Batagram, the campaign is being carried out in 12 of the total 20 union councils.

Swabi district, too, saw the start of the three-day campaign against polio in the day amid tight security measures for vaccinators.

Around 500 policemen are providing security to vaccination teams in Chota Lahor tehsil.

The campaign continuing until Jan 26 will cover Chota Lahor, Razaar, Swabi and Topi tehsils in four phases.

District police officer Sajjad Khan said over 530 policemen would be deployed in Swabi tehsil for the campaign and around 500 in Razaar and Topi tehsil each.

Dr Yaqub, the district chief of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation, said during the campaign, 258,000 children would be vaccinated against polio across the district.

He said besides local children, anti-polio teams had also been asked to cover Afghan children and those entering or exiting the district.

Also in the day, the three-day anti-polio campaign began in seven districts of Gilgit-Baltistan. The campaign will target 0.217 million children from January 19 to January 21 in the region, which has been polio-free for a decade.

Expanded Programme on Immunisation programme manager for Gilgit-Baltistan Dr Iqbal Hussain said 1,006 mobile teams had been formed to administrate anti-polio drops to the targeted children in the region.

“A total of 243 heads of the 81 zonal supervisors has been made to monitor anti-polio campaign at 341 places of the region, while deputy commissioners of the respective districts are the heads of the anti-polio teams,” he said.

Dr Iqbal said there was no threat to anti-polio teams in the region.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2015

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