PESHAWAR: Around 5.6 million children will be vaccinated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the three-day anti-polio campaign starting from Monday (today).

This was stated by Emergency Operation Centre (EOC), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, coordinator Akbar Khan here on Sunday at a high-level meeting. Representatives of the Unicef, EPI, WHO and other relevant departments were present on the occasion.

The meeting was told that due to concerted efforts of the government departments and partner organisations a significant decrease in polio cases had been witnessed in the province.

“Peshawar is polio-free since February last while efforts were underway to stop the virus transmission in the high-risk areas of the province,” he added.

Akbar Khan said that a comprehensive plan was made to ensure polio eradication in 2017, adding that OPV and IPV campaigns had been part of the plan. According to the EOC data, 5.64 million children under age five would be administered polio drops in the province, including 77 camps of Afghan refugees and IDPs.

The campaign will start in 1,032 union councils, for which a total of 17,767 teams of health workers had been constituted.

The EOC coordinator reiterated that the polio vaccine was safe and polio was eradicated from the globe through the same vaccine.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2017