Teams to reach 0.712mn children in FATA as three days anti-polio drive kicked off

PESHAWAR: Three days anti-polio drive has been kicked off in federally administered tribal areas and frontier regions here Monday with a total target of 0.712 million children.

Additional Chief Secretary FATA Arbab Muhammad Arif administered polio drops to children here at Fata Secretariat to formally inaugurate second passage of Short Interval Additional Dose (SIAD) in FATA to be held from February 24 to 26, 2014.

Director Health Services FATA Dr Pervaiz Kamal, representatives of EPI FATA and UNICEF were also present on the occasion.

According to the data of polio control fata 712985 children would be inoculated in this round of campaign for which 2638 total teams have been formed while the number of area incharge stand at 617.

The campaign would be carried out in all agencies and FRs except North & South Waziristan agencies, tehsil Bara, some areas of Orakzai agency and three union councils of FR Bannu. As a result total missed children would be 0.2897 million in FATA.

Meanwhile according to the readiness report collected from FATA Secretariat campaign has been deferred in Mohmand agency with a target population of 0.894 million children. The campaign has been deferred due to lack of preparation for conducting the campaign in the agency.

It is also pertinent to mention here that special campaign has been carried out in tehsil Bara of Khyber agency from February 10 that continued till February 19, 2014. Presently campaign in stopped in Bara due to security reasons in the area.

Federally Administered Tribal Areas have recorded 17 polio affected children so far out of which 16 are from North Waziristan agency where vaccination is banned since July 2012 while one case is reported from Khyber agency.