CHARSADDA, March 3: The district administration and health department have chalked out an elaborate plan to run an effective anti-polio campaign after Charsadda was declared one of the four high risk districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the crippling disease.

Dr Farhad Jan, EPI coordinator in Charsadda, told Dawn that in this regard district coordination officer Mohammad Ajmal chaired a meeting, which was attended by almost all senior health officials of the district.

He said that the participants identified 14 of 49 union councils as high risk areas, needing special attention during the three-day anti-polio campaign starting from March 12. These union councils include Punjpao, Rashakai, Matta Mughulkhel, Utmanzai, Harichand, Dakkai, Show Dag, Haisara Nehri, Gandheri, Abazai, municipal committee areas I, II and III (Shabqadar tehsil) and MC-IV (Charsadda).

Dr Jan said that 683 health teams would cover all the 49 union councils of the district with the cooperation of staff from other government departments. He said each two-member polio team would include one each male and female member. He said that the number of polio teams in all the 14 high risk union councils had been doubled to ensure coverage of all the children.

The EPI coordinator said that strategically Charsadda was situated in high risk zone as it shared border with several tribal agencies, including Mohmand, Bajaur and Malakand. He said that most of the people from these agencies entered the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa via Charsadda and as such the children of this district were also vulnerable to polio risk because of the frequent cases reported from the tribal areas.

He said that polio teams would be permanently stationed at each entry point from these agencies to vaccinate children entering Charsadda. He said that apart from Charsadda, the WHO and Unicef had also declared Peshawar, Nowshera and Mardan as high risk zones for polio.

The federal government has also directed the provinces to ensure effective polio awareness campaigns to educate parents on the need for vaccinating children against this crippling disease.

MEETING: National Research and Development Foundation (NRDF) district coordinator Mohammad Bilal and ulema of the area in a meeting on Saturday called upon the parents to cooperate with the health teams during the upcoming anti-polio campaign.

The meeting was held at Rajar area of Charsadda, which besides others was attended by district Khateeb Maulana Mohsinuddin, Maulana Qari Asadullah and JUI-F leader Maulana Irfanullah.

The ulema on this occasion said that polio was a disease that spread rapidly if not controlled timely. They said that vaccination of children was vital to establishing a healthy society. They said that disabled persons were not only burden on their parents, but on the whole society. They said that polio vaccines were useful for the health of children.