PESHAWAR: A three-day polio immunisation drive kicked off in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province on Monday amid tight security.

A total of 5,422 children under the age of five years will be administered polio drops in 25 districts of the province during the immunisation campaign.

According to the National Immunisation Database (NID) 14,705 mobile, 1,586 fixed, 737 transit and 107 roaming teams comprising of 17,135 workers are taking part in three-day drive.

Vitamin capsules will also be provided to the children- Photo by author

Read: WHO declares Peshawar world's 'largest reservoir' of polio

Apart from vaccines, vitamin capsules will also be provided to the children.

According to NID, 568,103 Vitamin-A (Blue) capsules and 4,507,954 Vitamin-A (Red) capsules will also be provided to the children, aged under five years.

Stringent security measures were adopted for the much needed immunisation drive as militant groups often attack polio teams as they see vaccination campaigns as a cover for espionage.

Stringent security measures were adopted for the much needed immunisation drive as militant groups often attack polio teams -Photo by author

The total number of cases registered in Pakistan this year are 32 with the last two reported in Khyber Agency.

According to a report published in Dawn Newspaper on September 8, Fata recorded 179 polio case and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 68 cases of the 306 countrywide cases in 2014 while they reported 65 and 11 cases respectively of the total 93 cases registered at national level in 2013.

Police is guarding the campaign teams- Photo by author

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa registered 27 and Fata 20 polio cases in the nationwide tally of 58 cases in 2012.

Fata along with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was declared hub of polio virus, which poses risk to children in the countries that had long been declared polio-free.

Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where polio remains endemic but efforts to eradicate the disease have been severely hindered in recent years as militants continue to attack immunisation teams and polio workers.