PESHAWAR: A three-day anti-polio campaign will start in Fata today (Monday), targeting to vaccinate around 965,633 children below five years of age.

The campaign will be followed by a catch up drive for missed children and surveillance activities in the region bordering Afghanistan, according to an official statement issued here on Sunday.

It said that the fresh drive would be the fifth round of anti-polio campaign of low transmission season closing the current month.

The emergency operations centre, Fata has constituted total 3,078 teams comprising 2,718 mobile, 270 fixed and 90 transit teams for the purpose. Levies, paramilitary and army personnel would provide security to the vaccinators.

Jamrud and Bara in Khyber Agency, South Waziristan, North Waziristan and Bakakhel, Janikhel, Hindikhel and Sintanga in Frontier Region Bannu have been declared high-risk zones in Fata and workers would specifically focus on these areas.

The statement said that during the last campaign carried out in April around 99 per cent children were successfully vaccinated and 0.3 per cent children were missed, while only 32 refusal cases were recorded.

The average percentage of targeted children covered during past four anti-polio campaigns of low transmission season had been maintained around 98 per cent with refusal rate below one per cent.

Last year, only 16 polio cases were detected in Fata, whereas no polio case has surfaced during this year so far, said the statement.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2016