LAHORE, Jan 26: A large number of children less than five years have reportedly not been vaccinated in Lahore during the three-day anti-polio campaign that concluded on Thursday.

Similar reports were received from other districts as well.

Sources in the health department told Dawn that the missing of children by the vaccination teams was causing problems in eliminating the crippling disease of polio. Despite all efforts, they said, some 10 polio cases were reported from Punjab during the last calendar year.

The Punjab government had launched a three-day anti-polio vaccination campaign on Jan 24 with a target to vaccinate 15.2 million children up to the age of five years. The health department had constituted 37,286 EPI teams and asked them to go from door to door to vaccinate children.

The department had also deputed 1,157 zonal supervisors, 6,224 area in-charges and 270 campaign support persons to monitor the drive.

It is learnt that the EPI mobile teams had left some streets in their respective jurisdictions. Parents also complained that no EPI team visited a number of primary schools in the city where a large population of three- to five-year-old children stayed till afternoon during working days.

When contacted, Executive District Officer (Health) Dr Abdul Qayyum admitted that many supervisors had reported different areas in the city where children were left unattended. He said the City District Government Lahore would observe two catch-up days on Friday and Saturday to vaccinate the missing children.