PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government on Friday started seven-day anti-polio campaign in Peshawar and Khyber districts while a 6-day campaign in the rest of the province.
The campaign was kicked started by Chief Secretary Dr Shehzad Bangash by vaccinating children in Peshawar. For the fourth and last campaign of the year, the government has set a target to vaccinate 6.4 million children against the virus across the province. Dr Bangash was informed that 30,000 teams have been constituted for the seven day world health organisation sponsored drive.
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To avoid any untoward situation, the government has planned to deploy, 45,000 personnel to provide security to the polio workers. Bangash said that a special campaign will be launched in six southern districts from January, next year. Dr Shehzad Bangash said that after the fourth and last campaign, two special campaigns in six southern districts would be launched from January. He added that the focus is on polio as well as other pediatric diseases.
Similarly in Malakand, Commissioner Malakand division, Syed Zaheer ul Islam directed the anti-polio task force to take strict action against parents refusing to vaccination children against the polio-virus. Addressing the meeting of task force, he hoped that from next year, the Malakand division would be declared polio-free as so far no polio case has been reported from the area. The meeting was called to review arrangements for week-long polio drive.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are now the only two countries in the world where the crippling disease is still threatening children. The health officials said that urgent efforts are needed to eradicate virus so that the WHO declare Pakistan polio-free. Polio affects children up to the age of five, leaving them permanently disabled and even dying. The officials said that contagious disease can be eradicated only by vaccinating children against polio.