Daily Times

PESHAWAR: A three day anti-polio vaccination campaign will start in FATA from tomorrow Monday December 18, 2017, under the supervision of agency surgeons and security provided by political agents, commissioners and armed forces.

The anti-polio vaccination campaign will continue from December 18, 2017 to December 20, 2017, followed by catch up of missed children.

Total of 1,040,281 children below the age of 5 years will be vaccinated with polio drops by 4,349 teams: comprising of 3,964 mobile teams, 286 fixed teams and 99 transit teams.

Coordinator EOC FATA Muhammad Zubair Khan advised EOC FATA Team that “every child under five years’ in FATA should be vaccinated with focus on persistently missed and on the move children during the anti-polio campaign”.

Coordinator EOC FATA said “improvement in the quality of campaign in North and South Waziristan Agencies is important to sustain a zero polio case status in FATA”.

He said “vaccinators at transit points especially in Khyber, North Waziristan and South Waziristan Agencies should remain vigilant and vaccinate every child under the age of five travelling to and from their respective agencies.”

He added that “it would not have been possible without the dedication of polio teams and support of parents and care givers that FATA has not reported a singly polio case in the last 16 months. And I am sure that same the commitment and zeal will be demonstrated in the upcoming anti polio vaccination campaigns as well to achieve the ultimate goal of polio eradication in FATA”.

In a recent Technical Advisory Group meeting held at Islamabad on December 1st, 2017 progress against polio in FATA has been appreciated.

International Monitoring Board in its fifteenth report also acknowledged that FATA has mostly met all benchmarks for supplementary immunization activity and surveillance.

FATA has not reported a single polio case in last 16 months. Last polio case in FATA was reported on July 27th, 2016. So far, in 2017 not a single case is reported in FATA whereas last year (2016) only two polio cases were reported from FATA.

Published in Daily Times, December 18th 2017.