Around 5.89 million children, below age of five years, will be vaccinated as the three-days anti-polio campaign will be kicked off across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa today (Monday). Officials of the health department said that total target of the campaign stands at 5.89 million children for which 27300 teams have been constituted out of which 19398 were mobile teams, 1620 fixed, 999 transit teams and 185 roaming teams.
Likewise, more than 30 thousand security personnel have been deployed with teams in sensitive areas to ensure security to teams. It is relevant to mention here that 10 polio cases were reported from across the country in 2018 so far out of which 6 are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, three from Balochistan and one from Karachi.
Earlier, talking to media, here on Sunday, the Emergency Operations Center Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Coordinator Capt (r) Kamran Afridi said that the concerted efforts were needed to stop virus circulation in the environment and teams should make every effort to vaccinate child below the age of five.
He appreciated the teams' efforts in curtailing polio cases and the number of affected districts in the province in last few years, however, the virus continues to circulate in environment that can hit the unvaccinated child anytime and cripple him/her with long life disability. Kamran Afridi said that polio eradication is the government program and is national emergency and requested the parents to immunize their children against polio and help the region rid of the menace for good.