CHITRAL: A campaign under National Immunization Days (NIDs) for the current month was launched here on Sunday by deputy commissioner Irshad Sodhar who administered oral polio vaccine (OPV) to a number of children in his office.

EPI district coordinator Dr Fayaz Roomi said on the occasion that Chitral was at high risk of poliovirus due to rising cases of polio in the adjacent Kunar province of Afghanistan. He claimed that efforts were afoot to provide OPV to all the 70,000 children below five years of age in the district. He said that 505 teams had been constituted for the three-day campaign.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Sodhar said that district administration had left no stone unturned to make the NIDs a success by approaching all the children. District health officer Dr Israrullah was also present on the occasion.

In Ghalanai, a senior official vowed that all-out efforts would be made to administer polio drops to each and every child in Mohmand Agency.

Dr Shabir Ahmad told mediapersons in Ghalanai on Sunday that the three-day anti-polio campaign would start in all the eight tehsils on Monday (today).

He said that about 362 mobile, 39 fixed and eight transit teams had been set up to carry out the door-to-door campaign.

He said that the local administration and security forces would provide security to the polio teams.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2018