Polio campaign held back in Swat, Bajaur and Kurram Agency

Continuos lawlessness and insurgency in the district Swat, Bajaur and Kurram Agency have compelled the authority to hold back anti-polio campaign till return of normalcy that has deprived children of due polio vaccines.
The Director Health, NWFP, Fazal Qayyum confirmed in a media briefing in Peshawar Press Club (PPC) that it was impossible to carry out the campaign and the children of these restive areas will have to wait for polio vaccines till the restive district Swat returns. Similar situation was prevailing in Bajaur and Kurram agencies as regard to the anti-poliocampaign.
He announced that the provincial department is all set to start another three-day polio eradication campaign in the NWFP sans district Swat and parts of Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata) from August 19 to 21st. Further, he said that majority of the countries had succeeded in eradicating polio and only few countries include like India, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan are still struggling to get rid of the menace.
Pakistan started polio eradication drive in 1994 that found momentum in 1999 when a door to door campaign was launched in the country. Although the campaign has helped reduce the number of polio cases. During 2007, 32 polio cases were registered from across the country. These were eight from Balochistan, 12 from Sindh, one from Punjab and 11 from NWFP. According to the data collected during the current calendar year, 29 confirmed cases have been reported from different parts of the country.
Out of these 29 cases, NWFP and Sindh share 11 cases each, four in Baluchistan and two from Punjab and one case had reported from the federal capital Islamabad. In 11 cases of the NWFP, two has been recorded from district Swat, two from Peshawar, two from Nowshera, one from Kohat, one from Mardan and one from District Dir Upper. The official of the health department said that during three major campaigns, teams would administer polio drops to nearly six million children in the province.
Further, the Health Director also informed newsmen that his department has constituted 14446 teams in this regard while the number of temporarily established teams is 667 with 3143 supervisors. It is worth remembering that the last campaign launched a month back was hit snag after the breach of peace agreement between the provincial government and militants.