PESHAWAR, April 21: Almost 13,000 children have been missed during the last anti-polio campaign in Mardan, Lakki Marwat and Bannu districts, sources said.

The provincial health department in collaboration with the UN agencies ran three-day campaign from April 8th to 10th in 22 districts and tribal agencies of NWFP and the Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata).

Giving a breakup, sources said that 7,000 children were missed out only in Mardan -- a district that has still not recovered from the harsh memories of an outbreak that caused polio to three kids in the last week of December last year. Similarly, 3,500 children remained unvaccinated in the high risk zone of district Bannu and about 2,500 remained inaccessible to vaccination teams in Lakki Marwat. Sources said that of the total 341,580 targeted children in Mardan 1,289 refusals were also included in the tally of missed children. Number of refusals stood at 2,000 in Bannu and 2,453 in Lakki Marwat.

Sources said that inefficiency on the part of the district health administration to carry out effective vaccination campaigns was the main reason behind the missed children. This, they said had given rise to the fear of transfer of virus in high transmission season amongst traveling children from parts of Fata to the neighbouring districts. Last year Mardan district had experienced an outbreak due to migrating families from troubled Swat district.

Only last week, the provincial health minister in a meeting with the WHO’s representatives had hinted at taking action against the executive district officers-health (EDOs), for showing laxity in anti-polio drive. However, sources said that EDOs of these three districts are unlikely to face action due to their influence.

The EDO Lakki Marwat is more worried about the security situation in the area than concentrating about the effectiveness of the polio eradication campaigns, the reason behind this might be the kidnapping of the EDO Bannu some five months ago.

An official of a UN agency said that lack of coordination among provincial and district governments and the partner organisations has been adding to the problem in addition to refusals by the parents.

Sources said that though the NWFP and Fata hadn’t reported any polio case this year, but the polio virus was in circulation and could pose serious threat in the coming days.

Deputy Director Expanded Programme on Immunisation Dr Abdul Waheed Khan told Dawn that they had planned a meeting on April 25 wherein the causes of missed out and refusal cases would be discussed. He said that the people had wrong notions about oral polio vaccines due to which some of the parents were unwilling to vaccinate their children.