KHYBER: The district administration has tasked the administrative and health officials to convince all the refusing parents and families to vaccinate maximum number of children under the age of five during the forthcoming polio vaccination campaign in Khyber.

The decision was taken during a meeting held at Khyber House on Thursday. The meeting, chaired by Deputy Commissioner retired Capt Sanaullah Khan, was attended by officials of police and health departments and representatives of World Health Organisation.

Health officials gave a detailed briefing to the participants of meeting about preparations for the weeklong campaign, starting from November 27. They said that every effort would be made to reach out to all the children below the age of five. The health teams, numbering 945, would ensure to visit every household in the district, they added.

The meeting was informed that during the weeklong vaccination drive, a total of 228,000 children under five would be administered polio drops by the trained health workers.

“In order to achieve its desired results, a large number of activities related to polio awareness and sensitisation including jirgas with refusing parents and families, orientation of key tribal, political and religious influencers, awareness walks, video message recordings from key influencers, session in schools and seminaries, alliance building sessions with community-based organisations, community engagement sessions and Friday sermons were conducted in all areas of the district,” the participants of the meeting were told.

The meeting was informed that 22 polio cases were reported in south Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2022. However, through effective mobilisation of all stakeholders and excessive anti-polio campaigns, this number has been considerably decreased and this year only five polio cases have been reported in Pakistan including three in Bannu and two in Karachi.

Officials said that at least three vaccination campaigns were conducted in Khyber and Peshawar during the last six weeks after detection of positive environmental samples in the suburbs of Peshawar.

They said that due to regular anti-polio campaigns, wide scale mobilisation with community and all stakeholders, no polio case was detected in Khyber since February 2019.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2023