PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is considering several options, including enhancement of upper age limit of children from existing five years to 10 years for polio immunisation, to cope with the circulation of virus in Peshawar.

`Peshawar is still the biggest challenge we are facing with regard to eradication of poliovirus. We are going to present our point of view and seek technical assistance of the UN agencies and federal government to cope with the situation, Mohammad Akbar Khan, coordinator of the KP Emergency Operation Centre, told Dawn.

Peshawar, which recorded one case of the total eight in the province in 2016, is facing an uphill task to eliminate the virus and it is now considering vaccinating children up to 10 years of age to eradicate the virus as well as take measures to cope with the challenge posed by children coming from other areas, including Fata.

`In every campaign, we record 25,000-30,000 more children coming from other areas to Peshawar. We have ensured quality vaccination in the past few months, but circulation of virus is a matter of grave concern,` he said.

Emergence of positive environmental sample for poliovirus from Shaheen Muslim Town, one of the two sites from where samples are collected every month, has beset the programme as despite strenuous ef forts the virus is stillin circulation.

Environmental samples have tested positive from many sites throughout the country, which is a setback to the national polio eradication programme.

Mr Khan said that they were going to seek technical assistance at the meeting of the National Polio Management Team to be held in Islamabad shortly. `On our part, we have been working to investigate the causes of virus circulation despite our efforts to ensure vaccination of all the 800,000 target children in every campaign,` he said.

He said that movement of people was also one of the problems and they needed technical support to take measures formaking Peshawar free of poliovirus.

Sources in the health department said that inclusion of children up to 10 years of age for polio vaccination had given good results in many areas, including Federally Administered Tribal Areas where people returning to Waziristan after military operation were given oral polio vaccines regardless of their age. Similarly, those crossing the Pakistan-Afghanistan border also receive vaccination, they said.

The sources said that a proposal by the KP might get approval from the technical people. `There`s growing concern why the virus is still in circulation despite huge monetary and human investment in polio eradication campaign, experts said.

As part of the enhanced ef forts, KP is also starting administering injectable polio vaccine (IPV) to children in Peshawar, Nowshera, Mardan, Swabi and Charsadda from Feb 6 to scale up immunity against the virus.

KP also needs to strengthen its coordination with Fata, which has recorded a big success in 2016 with regard to eradication of poliovirus. Fata had 179 cases in 2014, 16 in 2015 and two in 2016. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recorded 68 polio cases in 2014, 17 in 2015 and eight in 2016 whereas Peshawar recorded 29 cases in 2014, six in 2015 and one in 2016.