About 0.1 million children below the age of five will be targeted during anti-polio drive in Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA), as three-day polio eradication campaign kicked off Sunday in the province.
The provincial health department under Expanded Programme for Immunisation (EPI), Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, has formed more than 15,000 teams with supervisors in different districts. During the campaign, about 49 lakh children will be immunised in various districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, said Dr Janbaz Afridi, provincial co-ordinator EPI cell, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
He claimed that they had achieved access to 97 percent children below age of five years during last polio eradication drive in the province. Dr Afridi said that 95 percent finger-marking target has been set in the upcoming drive starting from October 24, 2011. He informed that about 11 polio cases have been registered in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, while 34 cases were reported in tribal areas. The polio cases ratio is high in FATA because of refusal and accessibility issues, he maintained.