Pak steps up security for anti-polio drive

Pakistan has stepped up security in 17 high risk districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas where a three-day anti-polio drive has been kicked off to vaccinate 4.458 million children.

Coordinator Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) KP Atif Rahman told a meeting here that 14,032 teams comprising trained health workers have been constituted. A total of 9,080 Area In-charges would monitor the anti-polio drive.

As many as 22,000 security personnel have been deployed for providing security to the polio workers in the province.

The meeting was informed that alongside the local population, the anti-polio teams would also administered oral drops at 68 Afghan refugee camps in KP and FATA region.

The current polio epidemiology in the country is the best ever observed with cases declining from 306 in 2014 to 54 in 2015 to 20 in 2016 and 8 in 2017.

In 2018, only one polio case has been reported so far from Dukki district in Balochistan.

Besides Pakistan, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Nigeria.