PESHAWAR: A three days National Immunization Campaign (NID) has been started across Khyber Pakthunkhwa on Monday wherein 5.640972 million children under five years would be vaccinated to eradicate this crippling disease completely.
Officials in Emergency Operation Centre Khyber Pakthunkhwa told APP that the campaign has been started in all 25 districts of Khyber Pakthunkhwa today to administer anti polio vaccinate besides Vitamin A to children under five years of age.
To administer Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) to kids, the government has constituted 20005 teams including 17330 mobile, 1592 fixed, 924 transit and 159 roaming that will visit house to house besides far flung and remote areas so that no children could be left out of this important facility.
These teams would be assisted by 4637 areas incharge besides lady health visitors and officials of health department. Apart from OPV, the kids would also be administered Vitamin A (blue capsule) to 564097 kids aged between six months to one year and Vitamin A (Red Capsule) to 451277 children aged between one year to five years.
The official said that polio cases have been significantly reduced in Pakistan due to effective and vigorous immunization campaigns being held from time to time besides active support of media and Ulema Karaam.
The Deputy Commissioners have been tasked to monitor the campaigns in their respective districts and took strict action against parents/guardians upon refusal of vaccine to their kids.
A total of 19 cases were reported from across the country including eight from KP, two from Fata, one from Balochistan, eight from Sindh whereas no case has been reported from Puniab.
The officials said against eight polio cases reported this year from Khyber Pakthunkhwa, three were detected in Bannu and one each in Peshawar, Nowshera, DI Khan, Kohistan and Hangu respectively.
Special security arrangements have also been made for protection of the workers. Special focus has been made to administer anti-polio drops to children of Temporarily Displaced Persons returning to their native areas.
Polio is a crippling and potentially deadly infectious disease that is caused by the poliovirus. The virus spreads from person to person and can invade an infected person's brain and spinal cord, causing paralysis (can't move parts of the body).
The official urged parents to bring their children to nearest hospitals and basic health units in case anti polio workers did not arrive to their homes due to some reasons to protect their children from permanent disability.
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