PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Senior Minister Shahram Khan Tarakai on Monday inaugurated an eight-day anti-polio campaign in five districts where 648,000 children would be vaccinated.

The minister inaugurated the campaign by administering anti-polio drops to children at the services hospital here.

The special campaign was launched in Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowhsera, Mardan and Swabi districts of Peshawar division where children would not only be vaccinated but also receive injections against the polio disease.

Children up to four months would receive anti-polio vaccine while those aged between four months and two years would be injected. Services of 3,238 teams and 6,416 community mobilisers have been hired to make the campaign a success. On the occasion, the minister said eradication of polio was the topmost priority of the government. He said refusal cases had been significantly reduced.

Meanwhile, talking to media persons here, coordinator Emergency Operations Centre Akbar Khan said the provincial health department in collaboration with the EOC had decided to conduct Inactivated Polio Vaccination (IPV) campaign in central and southern districts in a phased manner to eradicate the disease by 2017.

He said the first phase would be conducted in the central districts and the second phase to be conducted in March would cover the southern districts.—APP