PESHAWAR: A one-day polio vaccination campaign was launched in Peshawar on Sunday amid tight security.

Local health officials said that some 754,383 children will be vaccinated in 96 union councils in several districts of the city. Some 235 health teams accompanied by over 8,470 people will participate, and in-charges are also appointed for each polio team.

In light of the on-going polio campaign in the capital city, the K-P government has imposed a ban on pillion riding under Section 144.

KP has been facing polio outbreak because of ban imposed on vaccination by Taliban. The campaign has been adversely affected due to terrorist threats to the teams of health workers tasked with administering polio drops to the children. The government is facing mounting pressure from international health agencies as it fails to curb the crippling virus that has seen the highest reported cases in Pakistan this year.

Several polio teams have come under attack by militants in the past.

In response, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has planned aggressive polio campaigns following approval of funds by the federal government for immunisation activities.

With focus on the high-risk districts, the provincial health department had decided to conduct 15 campaigns from Oct 2014 to June 2015. The federal government had also approved Rs33 billion emergency plan for polio eradication in the country.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which had recorded 25 of total 147 countrywide cases in 2014 so far, desperately needed funds to vaccinate children ahead of low transmission season starting from October and scale up children’s immunity against polio virus besides continuing its routine immunisation activities.

Previously in August, a three-day polio vaccination campaign began in three tehsils of Khyber Agency during which 127,000 children were vaccinated.