PESHAWAR: A special three-day anti-polio campaign in 21 districts across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including the tribal districts, is commencing from Monday (today) in the backdrop of two new polio cases.

During the campaign a total of 4,745,748 children below age of five years will be given oral polio vaccine by 16,532 qualified teams, comprising 14,377 mobile, 1,230 fixed, 802 transit and 123 roaming teams.

The decision in this connection was taken at a meeting chaired by EOC coordinator of Emergency Operation of Polio Eradication Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kamran Ahmad Afridi.

The meeting discussed ways to eradicate polio from the merged tribal districts besides reporting of two new cases from Bajaur and Bannu.

The meeting was told that teams comprising 3,832 area in-charges had been deputed to monitor the whole process.

Mr Afridi said they were about to cover the last mile in polio eradication which needed unprecedented zeal and commitment of field workers and broader support from parents and caregivers.

He said tribal districts and subdivisions were achieving the highest level of performance and incredible progress had been made during past couple of years but rooting out polio from the region would only be possible with continued efforts of field workers, partners, administration and security agencies.

He said during the anti-polio campaign 691,575 children from four months to five years would be vaccinated with IPV injection in order to improve resistance against polio in the body.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2019