Talking to media persons after inaugurating three days anti-polio drive here Monday at Fata Secretariat, Sardar Abbass said that the recent influx of polio cases in FATA surfaced because of migration of local population to settled areas of the province and were actually not reported previously.
He said that there was no issue of refusals in FATA as people were demanding for vaccination to protect their children from lifelong disability.
Sardar Abbass said that FATA secretariat was approaching the relevant quarters to remove programmatic hurdles in the public health initiative and to ensure polio vaccination to each and every child in tribal areas.
It is pertinent to mention here that 2260 teams have been constituted to reach out to 0.58million target population in FATA in the first campaign of the year.
The government in consultation with technical partners has chalked out robust strategy for rooting out polio from the region in 2014 and to get the desired objective not only the number of campaigns has been increased in FATA but emphasis was also laid on improving quality of the campaigns.
Out of the total polio cases reported in the country in 2013, FATA has reported 60 with more cases in the pipeline.
Earlier, Secretary Social sectors FATA formally inaugurated three days anti-polio drive in FATA by administering drops to the children. Representatives of FATA Secretariat, EPI FATA, UNICEF and WHO were also present on the occasion.