A five-day anti-polio vaccination campaign has started in selected areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh from Monday after the virus was detected in multiple places. Provincial polio programmes have launched polio vaccination campaigns in selected districts of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from today after the virus was detected in multiple places.The spokesperson of Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) said that around four million children, up to five years of age, will be vaccinated during the campaign. He added that all arrangements for the campaigns have been made by the provinces.

The ‘special’ campaign will continue from June 19 to June 23 in both provinces including provincial capitals Karachi and Peshawar. The target is to administer the polio drops to over four million children under the age of five. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the campaign has been designed on two levels. In the province, seven districts will be fully covered and authorities will try to reach over 2.2 million children, by targeting all children under the age of five. These districts include: Nowshera, Peshawar, Mohmand, Hangu, Khyber, Kohat and Charsadda.

In eight other districts, specific union councils will be targeted along the the Pak-Afghan border as well as Afghan migrant camps. A total of 107,000 children will be targeted. These districts include Buner, Chitral, Dir, haripur, Mansehra, Malakand, Mardan and Swabi. The KP campaign will be carried out by 8,441 fixed, mobile and transit teams. In Sindh, the campaign will be carried out in 119 union councils across nine districts across Karachi, Hyderabad and Jamshoro. Authorities hope to reach and vaccinate over 1,825,098 children over the five day span.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP