All age polio vaccination starts from March 25 at Torkham border

By Ashrafuddin Pirzada
TORKHAM BORDER(Pakistan): Polio official Friday said that in the pursuance of global polio eradication initiative and Pakistan’s national emergency action plan they were going to formally start once and for all polio vaccination programmme from March 25 at Torkham border crossing and would administer polio drops to every body of different ages.

In a press release here issued said that after the directives from EOC Coordinator Capt(R) Kamran Ahmed Afridi all age travelers crossing the Pak-AfghanTorkham border will be vaccinated by the transit teams of both countries with the purpose to interrupt polio virus circulation in the region.

It said that Pakistan would soon wipe out polio virus from its soil. Adding that now the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan to start all age vaccination on Torkham border crossing would help contain virus circulation in the region.
Kamran afridi said polio virus mostly infect children but adults could be carrier and cause of polio virus transmission from one place to another place.He said for this purpose they want to administer polio to all ages so that to stop polio virus transmission from one to another region.

The coordinator said Khyber district has remained as high priority tier one district as it’s polio endemic area, with movement of high risk mobile population, having history of giving higher number of cases in the past.

He said Khyber district is adjacent to Peshawar that has also been continuously marked as polio reservoir area and frequently been found as a source of virus circulation in the region.  He said “all age vaccination at Torkhom border will help block transmission of virus across border".

Preparation for launching all age vaccination has already been completed. Additional male and female transit teams and social mobilizers have already been hired, trained and will soon be deployed to start vaccination from the set date.
Khyber district is tier one district hosting movement of around 14000 travelers on daily bases across the border. Vaccination of each and every person will serve as key to interrupt polio virus transmission across border as well as in the region.