PESHAWAR: A five-day anti-polio vaccination campaign will begin from January 11 to vaccinate all children under five years of age in the province.

In Peshawar, deputy commissioner Mohammad Ali Asghar while presiding over the readiness meeting at his office said that 745,863 children under five would be vaccinated against the crippling disease with the help of 2,471 teams.

Provincial Emergency Operation Centre’s coordinator, additional deputy commissioner, district health officer, assistant commissioners and WHO and Unicef representatives attended the meeting.

Officials review arrangements

The deputy commissioner was informed that all the arrangements had been completed for success of the campaign. He directed the partner agencies, the DHOs and ACs to specially focus on the coverage of refusal cases.

In Mansehra, deputy commissioner Qasim Ali Khan asked the health officials to ensure that every child under five was administered polio drops.

“Making the country polio free is a national cause and we should come forward for accomplishing this noble mission,” he told a ceremony on Friday to launch the campaign.

Mr Qasim formally inaugurated the drive after administering polio drops to children. DHO Dr Mushtaq Tanoli said around 258,800 children would be given polio drops in the district.

In Khyber tribal district, over 1,000 police personnel would provide security to health workers during the campaign. Officials said as many as 921 health teams had been formed to administer polio drops to 201,100 children in the district.

Khyber DPO Mohammad Iqbal told a meeting that all the SHOs had been asked to ensure foolproof security of the vaccination teams. MPA Bilawal Afridi inaugurated the campaign by administering polio drops to a child during the meeting.

In Bajaur, the district administration directed the officials of local health department to adopt result-oriented strategy for the anti-polio campaign starting from January 11.

The directives were issued by additional deputy commissioner Zameen Khan while speaking at a consultative meeting of union council monitoring officers and union council polio officers.

In Lakki Marwat, deputy commissioner Abdul Haseeb inaugurated the anti-polio drive at a ceremony held at his office. On this occasion, a health official said that a total of 882 teams had been formed to immunise 183,910 children.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2021