PESHAWAR: A five-day anti-polio campaign will be formally launched from Monday (Dec 16) in all districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including merged tribal districts.

A statement issued here said that KP chief secretary Dr Kazim Niaz inaugurated the campaign by administering polio drops to a child here on Friday.

During the campaign over 6.75 million children below five years of age will be vaccinated across the province. It said that 22,925 teams had been constituted to achieve the target. The campaign is focused on reaching and vaccinating every child for stopping transmission of the virus and its outbreak in the region.

Talking to mediapersons on the occasion, Dr Niaz said that eradication of polio from the province was on top of the priority list of the provincial government. He termed the task a huge challenge and a national cause and stressed upon all segments of the society, including parents, teachers, media, ulema, public representatives and other people, to play active role in strengthening the government’s effort to curb the menace of poliovirus once and for all.

Answering a question about increase in polio cases in the province, the chief secretary said that unfortunately baseless rumours spread regarding anti-polio drives in the recent past had done a great damage to the national cause.

Chief secretary says eradication of polio on top of priority list

He said the provincial government had now revamped the overall strategy of anti-polio campaign and devised customised strategies for each and every individual district keeping in view the ground realities.

He said that they were hopeful about achieving 100 per cent target of the campaign and in this regard all the commissioners, deputy commissioners and heads of all relevant departments had been assigned special tasks.

In Khar, the administration of Bajaur tribal district on Friday decided to take stern action against parents refusing to administer polio drops to their children during the campaign.

The decision was taken in a meeting of senior officials of the district administration and health department held here with deputy commissioner Usman Mehsud in the chair.

In Mansehra, ulema, students, traders, lawyers and local people on Friday held polio awareness walks in Oghi, neighbouring a Torghar union council where nine cases of polio had been reported in a few weeks.

“The participation of people from different walks of life shows the resolve of our nation to make the country free of polio,” said assistant commissioner Mohammad Shahjeen Vistro while addressing participants of the walk in Oghi.

He said the record showed that all those children who were infected by the crippling poliovirus in Torghar didn’t take vaccine because of refusal of their parents.

In Kohat, Commissioner Abdul Jabbar Shah inaugurated anti-polio vaccination drive on Friday. Deputy commissioner Matiullah Khan and EPI head Dr Mohabat Ali were also present on the occasion.

The commissioner was informed that in all 2,08,620 children below age of five would be vaccinated during the campaign. It was stated that 822 mobile, 80 fixed and 32 transit teams had been formed for the purpose.

In Lakki Marwat, deputy commissioner Jehangir Azam Wazir chaired a meeting on Friday to review arrangements for the anti-polio drive commencing from Monday.

Mr Wazir directed the officials concerned to ensure effective monitoring of vaccinators in areas from where confirmed polio and refusal cases had been reported.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2019