PESHAWAR: The anti-polio vaccination campaign, which was set to begin in Peshawar today, failed to commence due to 'unknown reasons'.
Dr Imtiaz Ali Shah, focal person for polio eradication in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told Dawn.com that proper arrangements for the polio drive were not in place which is why the campaign would not kick off today as per earlier announcement.
He declined to further comment or elaborate on the issue.
The immunisation drive is expected to begin next week now.
Around 800,000 children are to be administered the anti-polio vaccine, during the drive.
The KP health authorities had requested the education department to help carry out the campaign through teachers, following attacks on polio workers and killing of security personnel, but the teachers refused to undertake training for the vaccination and participate in the drive, citing low wages and security concerns as the reasons.
But on Saturday, over 9,000 teachers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa agreed to kick start the campaign after holding successful negotiations with the government.
Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where polio remains endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria. Efforts to eradicate it have been seriously hampered by the deadly targeting of vaccination teams in recent years.
Militant groups see vaccination campaigns as a cover for espionage, and there are also long running rumours about polio drops causing infertility.
There was a rise in the number of polio cases detected in the province in 2013 as compared to 2012.
At least one case of the crippling virus has been discovered in the province so far this year.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Jan 17 had declared Pakistan's troubled northwestern city of Peshawar as the world’s “largest reservoir” of endemic polio and called for urgent action to boost vaccination.