MANSEHRA: The district health department claimed to have achieved 99 per cent target of administering polio drops to children of five years and below in a special drive launched following a case of the crippling disease was detected in the neighbouring Kohistan district earlier this month.

“We have achieved 99 per cent target of administering polio drops to children in the entire district,” Tariq Hussain, the district superintendent of vaccination programme told reporters here on Saturday. He said a special polio drive, from Nov 23 to 26, was launched following a polio virus was confirmed in a child by the National Institute of Health Islamabad in Kohistan.

“The drive has been completed successfully under tight security as personnel of Frontier Constabulary accompanied each team in all the 59 rural and urban union councils of the district,” said Mr Hussain.

He said a total of 942 teams, including 813 mobile, reached out to 278,000 children, adding the teams comprised both men and women who were monitored by area heads and union council chairmen.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2016