As residents of North Waziristan Agency (NWA) have begun migrating to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other settled areas of the country due to the Zarb-i-Azb military operation, health officials have begun polio vaccination of thousands of children. An official linked to the polio vaccination campaign told Business Recorder on Thursday that the displaced as well as local children are being administered polio drops in Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Karak and Dera Ismail Khan.
Children residing in these districts have already been administered polio vaccine but the provincial government wants to run the campaign again. "There is no health hazard if a child is administered polio drops more than once," he said, adding that repeated campaigns are launched in the areas that are suspected of being the hub of the crippling virus.
Pakistan has also recently set up mandatory polio immunisation points at its international airports in response to recommendations by the World Health Organisation. It is mandatory to take polio drops and get a certificaate before travelling abroad.For the purpose, polio counters have also been set up in different hospitals across the country where the aspirant traveller may get the polio certificate. The official said that it is also mandatory for foreigners who travel to Pakistan to get polio drops and a certificate upon their departure from the country.
"To facilitate the foreigners, separate counters have been set up at all the international airports," he said. More than 50 cases of polio have been detected so far this year in militant-infested North Waziristan, out of 82 cases across the country Pakistan is one of only three countries, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, where polio remains endemic, and efforts to eradicate it have been badly hit by Taliban opposition to the campaign.
The militants have banned polio vaccination in tribal area as they maintain that health officials are agents of the West and spying on them. They cite Dr Shakeel Afridi as a main culprit who ran a fake vaccination campaign to locate the terror kingpin Osama Bin Laden. The official told this correspondent that the government plans to vaccinate around 200,000 children of IDPs against the disease. The campaign would also continue one day a week in the holy month of Ramazan.
To a question about the validity of the polio certificate for just one year, he said the decision has been taken after detailed discussions with all the stakeholders. "We want to continue the campaign until we get rid of the disease so that's why the validity of the certificate is fixed for one year," he said. "Sometimes the vaccination becomes ineffective due to multiple reasons; therefore repeated vaccination may ensure elimination of the disease," he added. In some remote areas there is no proper cold storage system for the vaccination and some vials become ineffective during transportation, therefore, it has been decided to keep administering polio drops until Pakistan is declared a polio-free country.
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