Three-day anti-polio drive starts in KP

PESHAWAR: A three-day special anti-polio campaign Wednesday started in six districts of the Khyber Pakthunkhwa under which 1.5 million children under five years of age would be given an Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV).

Dr Jan Baz Khan Afridi, Deputy Director EPI Programme Khyber Pakthunkhwa told APP hat the campaign has been started in Bannu, D I Khan, Kohat, Lakki Marwat, Peshawar and Tank districts and will continue till Friday.

He said 4343 teams including 404 fixed, 3678 mobile and 261 transits teams have been formed to administer door-to-door anti-polio vaccine to children.

The teams would be assisted by volunteers, lady health workers and officials of national building departments. The Deputy Commissionars have been asked to monitor the campaigns in their respective districts. He said 1.5 million children would be vaccinated in these districts.

Dr Janbaz Afridi said polio cases has started significant reduction in Khyber Pakthunkhwa due to holding of vigorous immunization and advocacy campaigns as only seven cases reported this year against 27 reported last year from the province.

In 2012, a total of 58 cases had been reported from the country while only 46 polio cases reported this year. The officials said two cases were reported from Punjab, seven from KP, three from Sindh and 34 from Fata this year. Two cases were reported from Peshawar, two from Mardan and one each from Bannu, Kohat and Malakand this year.