As many as 1.3 million children under-five years of age will be administered Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) in the anti-polio drive in six districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Peshawar starting today (Monday).
Chairing a meeting, the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Co-ordinator Akbar Khan informed that the upcoming campaign has been planned in Peshawar and northern districts of Shangla, Manshera, Abbotabad, Battagram and Kohistan as case response to Gilgilt Baltistan case.
Representatives of UNICEF, WHO, BMGF and EPI were in attendance on the occasion. He said that the campaign would be conducted in selected union councils of Abbotabad, Mansehra and in the entire districts of Peshawar, Battagram, Kohistan and Shangla.
According to EOC data, 0.862 million children under five years of age will be vaccinated against polio in Peshawar, 83108 children in Kohistan, 17500 in Shangla, 90666 in Battagram, 85176 in Abbotabad and 69244 in Mansehra.
Akbar Khan said that stringent measures have been taken to provide security cover adding that teams have been constituted of trained health workers and are deployed on fixed and transit points.
Moreover, another eight days inactivated polio campaign (IPV) has been planned in Kohat, Karak, Bannu and Tank districts of the province from March 22, 2017.
He informed that 191438 children aged between 4 to 23 months will be given IPV shots out of which 62092 in Kohat, 42822 in Karak, 28108 in Tank and 58422 in Bannu have been targeted for the campaign.
To reach the target 958 teams of trained health workers have been formed for the upcoming IPV campaign while 1856 community mobilizers will be engaged in the drive.