ISLAMABAD: Over 16,400 families across the country refused to get their children vaccinated during the first two days of the latest round of the National Polio Campaign. Besides, 610,333 children were missed because they were not available when vaccination teams visited their homes.

The third three-day National Polio Campaign of 2015 started on Monday with the target to vaccinate 35.5 million children below the age of five. Around 80, 000 teams were formed to vaccinate children at their doorsteps and over 9,000 teams were deputed at fixed centres and over 4,000 at the transit points.

Know more: KP police arrest 471 parents for refusing polio vaccine

An official of the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) said initially it was decided that the campaign would be conducted in 36 districts of Punjab, 25 of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 22 districts and 18 towns of Sindh, 30 districts of Balochistan, 10 of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, seven of Gilgit Baltistan, seven agencies and six frontier regions of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and two districts of Islamabad Capital Territory.

“But the campaign was postponed in some areas because of different reasons like security, unavailability of workers and weather,” he said.

Minister for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar has convened a meeting on Thursday to review security arrangements for polio teams.

Published in Dawn March 19th , 2015

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