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Anti-polio drive set to resume in frontier province

    ISLAMABAD

    A campaign to immunise some 150,000 children against polio in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) will resume on Tuesday, after being postponed for a week due to tribal tensions, a Pakistani health official confirmed to IRIN on Monday. "The situation is fluid but we hope to continue with our work tomorrow," programme manager for Pakistan's expanded programme on immunisation in the NWFP, Dr Hameed Afridi said.

    The immunisation days for the Khyber Agency, originally planned for 3,4,5 September, did not take place due to a dispute, which involved local authorities and villagers protesting electricity tariffs. Local people were not allowing government vehicles in parts of the Khyber Agency. Hameed explained that the polio teams did not want to take risks and therefore decided to postpone the immunisation programme. "We thought we should wait and see," he added.

    Proving to be a difficult area to work in, Hameed remarked that the polio teams had achieved much in the difficult terrain of the Khyber Agency. "Innovative steps have been taken recently and people are more forthcoming in this tribal area," he explained. Local elders had requested for the polio teams to return a few days back. "They told us that they don't want their children to suffer and we feel that the situation has improved," Afridi said.

    The resumption of the immunisation days followed a meeting between health officials and village elders in the Khyber Agency. The troubled area in question was the stretch between the Bigari pass and Sultan Khel which is located on the main Landi Kotal road leading to the Khyber pass, an historic route into Afghanistan.

    Polio is a crippling disease which can be fatal. There are 36 cases in Pakistan this year, of which nine are in the NWFP. "We hope to eradicate polio in Pakistan by the end of this year," he added.

    The global polio-eradication initiative was launched 13 years ago. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the number of cases have fallen by 99 percent worldwide with the number of polio-infected countries down from 125 to 20.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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