Over 300,000 KP children miss polio
vaccination


A Pakistani child is given a polio vaccination by a district health team worker outside a
children’s hospital in Peshawar. – File photo by AP



PESHAWAR, Aug 5: Polio vaccinators failed to reach 313,386 children
in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the recent three-day immunisation
campaign, according to a World Health Organisation monitoring
report.


The report seen by Dawn said oral polio vaccine (OPV) couldn’t be
administered to 2.1 million children in the country from July 16 to July 18
due to the vaccinators’ inability to access their areas or opposition by their
parents.


It put the number of nationwide immunisation refusal cases at 82,000.


Earlier last week, the expanded programme on immunisation claimed in a
report that 584,046 children couldn’t be vaccination in the campaign as
528,271 of them missed vaccination and parents of 55,775 sent
vaccinators away.


When contacted, WHO senior coordinator Dr Elias Durry said it was for the
first time, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had recorded a lower number of
immunisation refusal cases (22,000) compared to Sindh (33,780).


He said 443,231 children missed polio vaccination in Sindh, while such
children totaled 313,386 in KP.


“This data reflects registered cases only. The actual burden of
immunisation refusal and missed cases is likely to be much higher,” he said.



http://dawn.com/2012/08/06/over-0-3m...s-vaccination/

Good Job Taliban....may all of you go to Jahanam for ever.

Even in Karachi, they killed a doctor who was there to administer polio drops to Pashtun children.

What do the Taliban sympathizers on PF have to say about all of this? Why are they hiding?

They would say now that those vaccination program is evil. Tere is some kind of conspiracy behind it, to poison pashtun kids -_-.

And the parents are so dum, for not allowing there children do be vaccinated. They gona learn there lesson in a really bad way.

Eradicating polio: Health authorities plan
new vaccination campaign in K-P


PESHAWAR: After around 16,000 families in the province refused to
vaccinate their children against polio, worried health authorities have
decided to embark on a special vaccination drive in the last week of
the month.

“The government has already directed the civil administration to take legal
action against elders of families who refuse to administer polio drops to
their children,” an official at provincial health secretariat told The Express
Tribune here on Tuesday.

Recently, polio positive cases were detected in Peshawar, Charsadda,
Mardan and Lakki Marwat districts. Hectic meetings between senior officials
from the districts’ health departments and civil administrations are being
carried out to ensure the campaign targets are met and the vaccination
teams are provided security.

When contacted, Dr Janbaz Afridi, deputy director of the Expanded
Programme on Immunisation (EPI) confirmed the negative attitude many
families harboured against polio drops. He said the government has already
devised an ‘Augmented National Emergency Action Plan’ aiming at
interrupting polio virus circulation in the country by the end of this year.

“The health department is going for a special polio eradication drive from
August 27,” Afridi informed, adding that during the special three-day drive,
around 1.8 million children below the age of five from 153 union councils
(UC) will be vaccinated against the disease.

“The children belong to 48 UCs of Peshawar, 18 from Charsadda, 33 from
Lakki Marwat and 44 from Mardan,” Afridi added.

Twenty-nine polio positive cases were detected in the country this year so
far; 21 of these were reported from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas
(Fata) and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

Dr Janbaz said that out of those 21 cases, 13 were reported from Fata
while the remaining eight were reported from various districts in K-P.

Meanwhile, three cases each surfaced in Sindh and Punjab and two were
reported from Balochistan.

Senior health and civil administration officials confess the anti-polio drive
faces numerous hurdles. The ban on vaccination in North and South
Waziristan has deprived more than 200,000 children. Khyber Agency’s Bara
tehsil has been inaccessible for vaccination teams since September 2009 as
well. Of Fata’s 13 polio positive cases, 10 were reported from Bara. Without
access to Bara and Waziristan, the Augmented National Emergency Action
Plan’s goals remain at serious risk.

Internal migration has also hindered efforts to eradicate the disease.
Official data reveals more than 150,000 families from Bara are living as
internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Peshawar and its adjoining areas.



http://tribune.com.pk/story/422135/e...mpaign-in-k-p/