LANDI KOTAL: Authorities in Khyber Agency have decided to launch the three days anti-polio campaign from January 23 after the vaccine administered during the previous drive were tested negative by National Control Laboratory for Biologicals in Islamabad.

A letter sent to the national programme manager of EPI said that National Control Laboratory for Biologicals performed tests on vaccine samples sent from Khyber Agency and the results were compared with the certificate of analysis provided with the lot. “The vaccine has no bacteria or fungal contamination as evident in the sterility test performed while the pH is within stated limits,” it added.

Authorities had to suspend the scheduled vaccination campaign at the last moment after security officials refused to allow administration of the vaccine to children in Bara till the outcome of the laboratory tests of the vaccine samples from the previous campaign.

At least five children died in Bara and Landi Kotal during the last campaign after which a number of parents and local elders expressed their reservations over the quality of vaccine administered to their children.

The health authorities in the meantime sent blood samples of the affected children along with anti-polio drops to Islamabad for authentic medical examination.

Officials said that all the children died due to other ailments as was proved from the results of their blood tests but the result of polio vaccine got delayed owing to its sensitive nature, causing postponement of the scheduled campaign on January 16.

Meanwhile, Agency Polio Eradication Committee (APEC) comprising representatives of World Health Organisation, UNICEF, additional political agent, agency surgeon and security officials held a meeting at Khyber House on Thursday after receiving the vaccine test results from Islamabad.

The meeting decided to conduct the vaccination campaign simultaneously in Bara, Landi Kotal and Jamrud with the help of over 700 health teams to vaccinate around 223,000 children below the age of five.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2017