IDPs' camps offer opportunity to vaccinate previously inaccessible children

The presence of thousands of children from Swat and other troubled areas in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps has offered an opportunity for anti-polio teams to vaccinate those children who could not be accessed previously.
"This is a great opportunity to immunise these children who are coming from the areas we have not been able to access before. In fact we have set up transit points to these children," Melissa Corkum, Programme Communication Specialist polio/EPI (Expanded Programme on Immunisation) for the UNICEF, was quoted as saying by IRIN, the UN information unit in a report.
Tens of thousands of children could not be vaccinated because militants in the troubled areas had opposed vaccination campaigns. This is believed to have contributed to 117 polio cases reported in 2008, a sharp increase as compared to 32 cases reported in 2007.
This year 12 new cases have been reported so far as compared to seven cases detected in the corresponding period last year, according to data maintained by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Ershad Karim, the Chief Field Officer for the UNICEF in Peshawar, said they had launched vaccination campaign and were working with relevant government departments. "In seven IDPs camps we have vaccinated 15,000 children against polio and 9,389 against measles," he added.
UNICEF is providing safe water and sanitation facilities in four newly established camps to more than 22,000 people to prevent spread of diseases among children. Facilities provided include latrines, water tanks and deep holes for safe drinking water. However, the needs of the rising number of IDPs are immense, and families remain worried. The precise number of displaced children is unknown, but Ershad Karim said about 40 percent of the displaced persons were children.
Melissa Corkum said emergency outreach immunisation sessions had been planned to cover the children accommodated in schools, government or private premises. She said special training had been given to teams to vaccinate and register all the children based with host families.