PESHAWAR: Twenty-four polio victims out of 34 total cases, detected this year in NWFP and Fata, belong to conflict-hit areas where vaccination couldn’t take place for the last two years.

Of the total 54 cases in the country, 34 belong to NWFP and Fata that include 12 cases each in the militancy-hit Bajuar Agency and Swat district, according to NWFP Health Director General Dr Fazal Mahmood.

Most of the affected children hadn’t been immunised against poliomyelitis owing to terrorism that kept health workers away from them, he said.

Speaking at a ceremony organised by health department and Unicef to give away shields to local journalists on Monday, he said that situation was now improving in Swat and Fata.

On the directives of the federal government, he said, a special vaccination campaign was being run to raise immunity level of the children against the seven vaccine-preventable ailments from October 1.

He said that health workers would administer vaccines to children in villages and vaccination centres but they wouldn’t carry out door-to-door visits.

The deputy director expanded programme on immunisation of health, Dr Mujahid Hussain said that it was the national duty of reporters to inform people about the importance of polio drops. ‘Polio drops are the only way to safeguard children against a disease that paralyses them permanently,’ he added.

The team leader polio eradication initiative of World Health Organisation for NWFP and Fata, Dr Abdul Jabbar also appeared hopeful about polio eradication efforts in the province. He said that role of media was extremely vital to get rid of the crippling ailment.

‘For the past two years, there had been no full-fledged anti-polio campaign in Swat and 95 per cent of the 12 polio-affected children this year happened to be below two years,’ he said. The Unicef health and nutrition officer for NWFP and Fata, Dr Mohammad Rafiq said that only 38 union councils out of Swat’s total 67 union councils had been covered in immunisation campaign. He hoped that next effort would cover the entire district.

‘The campaign against polio has suffered sever setback due to the effective propaganda by militants. Media can counter the negative propaganda by portraying anti-polio effort positively,’ he added.

NWFP Health Minister Syed Zahir Ali Shah, who was chief guest on the occasion, said that there was no second opinion about media role in doing away with evils from the society. He urged the local journalists to swing into action and use their pens for highlighting the health problems faced by the people.

‘Besides polio, we need to raise the level of public awareness regarding prevention of dreaded diseases such as hepatitis and HIV/Aids. Prevention is far better than cure because it costs nothing,’ he said.