Around 5.7 million kids to be vaccinated against polio in KP

Around 5.7 children below the age of five years would be vaccinated during the upcoming anti-polio campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This was stated during a meeting of Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chaired by Coordinator EOC, Atif Rehman here on Friday. Team Leader UNICEF Dr Johar, Technical Focal Person BMGF Dr Imtiaz Ali Shah, Team Leader WHO Dr Abdi Nasir, Provincial N Stop Dr Ijaz and other technical staff were also present on the occasion.
The meeting was informed that a target had set vaccinated more than 5.71 million children polio drops during the upcoming anti-polio campaign across the province. It added that a total of 18,656 teams had been constituted to reach the target children out of which 15,940 were mobile, 1,544 fixed, 926 transit, while 246 were roaming teams. The meeting told that stringent measures would be taken to ensure secure environment to the teams and more than 30,000 police personal were deployed for the security cover.
The meeting said micro plans were updated and all the high risk and mobile population were mapped out so that no child was missed during the campaign. It is pertinent to mention here that the country has recorded 60 percent decrease in terms of polio cases which stood at 20 in 2016 as against the 8 cases in 2017. The January campaign was the first campaign of the year that will be conducted across all districts of the province.
Later, addressing the meeting, Atif Rehman has paid rich tributes and saluted the resolve and support of Community Health Workers (CHWs) for the fight against polio saying that Sehat Muhafiz were braving numerous challenges on ground for protecting future generations from the scourge of polio virus. "Even a single child left unvaccinated might be putting all other children in danger of catching the virus," he said while chairing a planning meeting here at Emergency Operations Center Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the upcoming anti-polio drive in the province starting from January 15, 2018.
The official urged the parents and all sections of society to resolve to end polio from Pakistan by ensuring that every single child gets vaccinated during every polio campaign. He said the country was never closer to eradication as it was now and it was right time to tap all available resources to eradicate polio from the region.