By Ashrafuddin Pirzada
LANDIKOTAL: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa polio coordinating and emergency operations centre Incharge Abdul Abdul Basit on Monday inspected the ongoing anti-polio campaign in the three tehsils of district Khyber, official sources said.
Polio office spokesman Aqeel Yousufzai told this scribe that Abdul Basit monitored the ongoing anti-polio campaign and appreciated the efforts of polio teams to strive for target despite challenges.
He said Abdul Basit also visited the Ali Masjid health centre in Jamrud tehsil and the civil dispensary at Sra Cheena locality in Bara Tehsil of district Khyber.
He said the official later went to Landikotal hospital and checked arrangements for vaccination. He also visited the Bagyari check post to check the health workers’ presence who administer polio drops to transit children travelling from Peshawar. He directed the staff to wholeheartedly take part in the anti-polio campaign so that they could eliminate the polio virus from the country as soon as possible.
Aqeel said the polio official met with the health staff at various health centres and asked them about the ongoing anti-polio drive in the merged districts.
The official later went to the Torkham border crossing where he met with polio transit teams. He encouraged polio workers for vaccinating the children despite the difficulties and challenges they come across due to the busy international borders.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa polio coordinator Abdul Basit said that the current anti-polio campaign was of paramount importance as polio drops would be administered to children across the province. He said vaccination of children in the Khyber tribal district and travellers crossing the Border would not only help save children from paralysis but it would also prevent transmission of poliovirus in the region.
He urged polio teams to achieve targets and appealed to parents to cooperate with polio workers in administering polio drops to their children.
The government constituted 1242 teams to administer polio drops to 213285 children in district Khyber.
In 2019 so far 75 polio cases have been reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. While the number of polio cases in Pakistan has reached 104 in 2019 so far.
