PESHAWAR, (Millat + APP): An eight-day anti-polio campaign is underway in five districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa amid tight security to immunize over 555,456 children at risk of contracting the crippling disease.
The campaign is underway in five KP districts including Peshawar, Mardan, Nowshera, Charsada and Swabi from February 6 that will continue till February 13.
Talking to media persons here, Coordinator EOC Akbar Khan informed the eight days IPV campaign started on Monday and will continue till February 13 adding the second phase will be conducted in March in southern districts of the province.
Khan said that IPV is being introduced and being used alongside OPV in order to boost the immunity of children most-at-risk of polio virus adding that it is an effort to stop polio transmission in Pakistan.
He said IPV campaign is not door to door vaccination like routine OPV campaigns when teams visit houses and vaccinate children. As many as 3238 trained staff will vaccinate children at 403 Health and 2802 outreach centers, he said.
The Coordinator COC informed that 3238 teams and 6416 community mobilizers will work for vaccinating all children below 24 months of age.
He said total target of the first phase of IPV campaign is 555,456 children aged between 4 to 23 months out of which 75970 children will be immunized in Nowshera, 78594 in Swabi, 79394 in Charsadda, 119704 in Mardan and 201794 in Peshawar.
He said that during the IPV campaign oral polio vaccine would also be administered to children up to 23 months. A total of 509708 children will be given OPV in the upcoming IPV campaign in five districts of the province.
He informed that when IPV is given to a child it develops immunity in the blood and protects the child. Children would continue to receive OPV despite IPV as it was the only way to stop virus circulation, he added.