Special polio campaigns kicked off in HR districts to reach out to 2.6mn children

PESHAWAR: The third round of Short Interval Additional Dose (SIAD) would start from tomorrow (May 28) in district Peshawar that is declared hub of polio virus by World Health Organization based on the positive environmental samples collected from the sewage water in different parts of the provincial capital.

Apart from District Peshawar, campaigns in response to polio cases reported in District Mardan are being conducted in Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda, Nowshera and in Tehsil Dargai of Malakand agency.

Talking to APP an official of provincial health department said that campaign in Peshawar would start from May 28 whereas campaign in Mardan, Charsadda, Swabi, Nowshera and Malakand has started on May 27.

He informed that target population of District Peshawar is 757362 and total number of teams stands at 2166 whereas target population of district Mardan, Nowshera, Charsadda, Swabi, Tehsil Dargai and Afghan refugee camp in Malakand is 1217389 for which 3407 teams have been constituted.

Likewise, in response to the polio case reported from North Waziristan agency special campaign is being carried out in Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank, D. I. Khan and Hangu.

The campaign that started on May 27 in the southern districts would reach out to a target population of 712930 and 2006 teams have been constituted for this purpose.

It is worth mentioning here that SIAD "Short Interval Additional Dose" approach involves administering two doses of monovalent oral polio vaccine (mOPV) over the course of one or two weeks.

Historically, trivalent OPV had to be given over an interval of four to six weeks.

This more rapid approach to delivering vaccines is particularly valuable in areas where children are difficult to reach (e.g. conflict areas, nomadic populations), and plays an important role in stopping new outbreaks.