Pakistan On Track to End Polio in 2013

[Riaz Haq]

In spite of setbacks from the US CIA's fake vaccination scheme in 2011 and the killing of polio workers by the Taliban in 2012, the WHO says Pakistan is on track to be declared polio free in April this year.

“We believe that Pakistan is on the right track to become free of
poliovirus a  type P3, as the last P3 case was reported in the Bara Tehsil
in Khyber Agency in the second week of April 2012, whereas all recent
sewage samples show no active transmission of the P3 strain across the
country,” Dr Elias Durry, the head of the Polio Eradication Initiative at
WHO Pakistan told Dawn newspaper.  Type 1 and type 2 strain of the poliovirus have already been eradicated in Pakistan.

Until 1988, the disease was endemic to 125 countries,
paralyzing or killing 350,000 people each year--mostly children, according to Time magazine.  Now it remain in only three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. There were 57 polio cases in  Pakistan in 2012, significantly down from 198 in 2011. The last reported case of polio in Pakistan was in April, 2012. Pakistan will be declared free of polio by the WHO if there are no cases reported by April, 2013.

Here's an excerpt of a recent story in Time magazine explaining the polio vaccination campaign in Pakistan:

Pakistan is putting institutional power behind the sentimental
appeals. After the December shootings, the government temporarily
suspended the inoculation program, but Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf
quickly issued a statement confirming the country's commitment to the
campaign. He called for an inquiry into the attacks, promised the safety
of polio workers and pledged to proceed with plans to deploy 250,000
health workers to vaccinate 34 million children in 2013. Polio teams
will continue to work at toll plazas, boarding buses and looking for
children who don't have blue ink staining a finger--a mark applied by
field workers after a vaccine has been administered. When they find an
unmarked child, they vaccinate on the spot.  Appeals to religion
and reason are being deployed as well. Health workers in tribal areas
cite Koran verses that encourage the care of children and reach out to
local religious leaders for support.

WHO's  Pakistan representative Dr. Durry said last year Balochistan cut the number of polio
cases by 95 per cent, Sindh by 88 per cent, Punjab by 78 per cent and
the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) by 66 per cent. “The most
promising sign for Pakistan during the last year was a massive decrease
in the number of polio cases during the high transmission season,” he
said. Dr. Durry explained that all sewage samples collected from cities of
Punjab in recent weeks were found negative. “Most samples
collected from Peshawar, Gadap Town in Karachi and Hyderabad produced
positive results in the past, but they showed negative results now,” he added.

Frontline health workers in Pakistan are in the midst of pulling off a major success under very adverse circumstances. They are taking great risks for a worthy cause and deserve the nation's gratitude for their exemplary commitment.

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[Riaz Haq]

Here's a News report on presence of P1 in Pakistan:

Karachi

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed the presence of poliovirus P1 in the sewage of three Pakistani cities - Karachi, Hyderabad and Peshawar.

“Laboratory analysis has confirmed that P1 poliovirus was present in the sewage of Gadap Town in Karachi, Hyderabad and University Town in Peshawar,” a WHO official said on Monday.

The official said the samples were collected earlier this month.He added that the laboratory tests helped identify the areas where the virus was rampant, allowing the authorities to plan extensive polio vaccination campaigns there.

Free of P3

The WHO plans to declare Pakistan free of poliovirus P3.

The WHO official said the last case of a P3 poliovirus infection was reported in Pakistan on April 14 last year and if no new case was reported by April this year, the country would be declared free of the virus.He said the virus was also not found in the sewage samples collected from 31 cities of the country.

Year’s first drive

Following the murder of women vaccinators during last year’s polio vaccination campaign, this year’s first centralised polio vaccination campaign in 97 union councils of 14 towns of Karachi will commence on February 4.

Unlike the previous vaccination drives, the provincial health authorities have decided not to publicise the campaign for the security of vaccinators, many of whom have been reluctant to take part in administering polio drops to children.

During the campaign, around 1,067,744 children up to five years old will be administered polio vaccine drops, for which over 300 teams of vaccinators and volunteers will be constituted.

Officials of the Sindh Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) are planning to mobilise over 6,000 vaccinators and volunteers to inoculate children against polio.

They said that majority of the female vaccinators, especially the lady health workers, have been reluctant to take part in the campaign.

Sindh EPI Manager Dr Mazhar Khamisani confirmed that a comprehensive polio vaccination campaign was being planned to start early next month, but due to security concerns, the campaign was not being publicised like in the past.

He said vaccination would be carried out in some parts of Karachi amid tight security, for which the city administration would be consulted and taken into confidence to ensure that all the targeted children are covered during the campaign.

He maintained that tight security would be provided to vaccinators and volunteers, especially female volunteers.

He said lady health workers were not reluctant to take part in the campaign, adding that only a few vaccinators were asking for heightened security in certain sensitive areas of the city.

Drive across Sindh

Khamisani said a polio vaccination campaign across Sindh had started on Monday, during which over 3.2 million children in 620 union councils of 22 districts of the province would be administered polio vaccine drops.

He maintained that over 25,000 volunteers and vaccinators were taking part in the form of 12,000 teams to vaccinate the children, adding that 764 fixed and 712 transit stations had also been established to vaccinate the maximum number of children.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-4-156812-Polio-virus-found-in...

[Riaz Haq]

Here's a Nation newspaper story on polio free Pakistan in 2013:

Though, the recently held first nationwide polio vaccination drive of the year missed some 1.83 million children, still the polio eradication partners after the sharp decline in the cases are quite optimistic and hoping that if the pace is continued the country may be declared polio free in December 2013.
Sharing the details of anti-polio vaccination campaign that ran from April 15 to 17, the representatives of polio eradication programme informed that there has been 71 per cent decrease in the cases and 70 per cent decline in environmental circulation of the virus as compared to previous years. "Besides, Pakistan has been declared P-3 poliovirus free country on April 18 and if the upcoming polio campaigns are conducted successfully and the missed areas are also covered, polio will soon be a thing of the past in the country," said Dr Elias Durry, Head of Polio Eradication, World Health Organisation (WHO).
He maintained that security concerns in Pakistan are putting in danger a remarkable record of success toward wiping out polio, as well as progress against the diseases. He said that some areas of Peshawar, including Larama and Shaheen towns, still reported active transmission of polio virus that was a the biggest threat against the efforts. He said that central Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, Fata, high-risk areas of Karachi and Quetta were core endemic areas. However, he said that the reported decline in the number of cases was a significant achievement.
Drawing a comparison with previous years, he said that in 2011 total number of infected districts were 60 and 196 children were infected with P-1, 2 and 3 virus. He said that in 2012 the number of infected districts came down to 28 and the number of children infected with P-1 and P-3 virus reduced to 55 and 2. But in 2013 so far 6 cases had been surfaced from Sindh, Punjab, and KPK.
During the campaign some 1,834, 625 children missed polio drops across the country owing to various reasons, including security threats. About 763,714 children were missed only in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, 621,724 in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), including 260,000 from North and South Waziristan and 396, 925 children in Balochistan.
About 69,926 children could not be administered polio drops due to parental refusal during the campaign. As many as 33,693 children were missed only in KPK, 24,569 in Sindh and 9,442 in Balochistan.
Out of 34,452, 502 targeted children, 32,617,876 children, almost 95 per cent, were successfully immunised against polio by the 196,057 health workers in the country excluding North and South Waziristan.....

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-onli...

[Riaz Haq]

Here's a Dawn story on rebasing Pak economy resulting in 7.8% increase in GDP for 2012-13:

ISLAMABAD, April 29: After a delay of one year, the Governing Council of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Monday approved the rebasing for calculation of national accounts.

Dr Shahid Amjad, adviser to the prime minister on finance and also chairman of the council, changed the base year for calculation of national accounts from 1999-2000 to 2005-06 to depict the actual performance of the economy and variables.

As per rebasing, the size of the GDP now expands to Rs7,716bn from Rs7,159bn in the previous base year, reflecting an increase of 7.8 per cent (Rs557 billion).

The size of the GDP is the outcome of changes in procedures, methodology for calculating various indicators, expansion of coverage to more sectors and corrections in the existing sectors. Double counting, omissions and errors have also been rectified.

The re-basing is now believed to make the system more advanced and on a par with the international system. Some missing areas like stone crushing industry, stock exchanges, brokers, cable operators, internet providers etc., are now part of the economy.

A senior official of the PBS told Dawn that the budget proposals for 2013-14 would be based on the new figures, which will be finalised by end of this week. “We are now working on calculating new growth figures on the basis of new base year”, the official added.

Last year, the base year was revised ahead of the budget, but the then finance minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh had reversed the process to show good feel figures.

Since July 2012, the rebasing was on the agenda of the PBS governing council but no meeting was convened.

The growth in the size of overall economy was mainly driven by an increase of 14.47 per cent (Rs547bn) in the share of services sector to GDP.

In the services sector, the share of wholesale and retail increased by 20.68pc (Rs261bn); transport, storage and communication 5.61pc (Rs51bn); housing services (owner of dwelling) by 172.97pc (Rs320bn); general government services 5.1pc (Rs21bn).

However, the share of two services finance and insurance; other private services dipped by 22.2pc (Rs81bn) and 3.82pc (Rs25bn), respectively.

With the introduction of Financial Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured (FISIM) in the banking and insurance sector, the contribution of the sector had been measured based on the services provided.

The share of overall agriculture sector in GDP increased by 21.82pc (Rs318bn). The share of crops increased by 21.01pc (Rs133bn), livestock 21.5pc (Rs165bn), forestry 21.4pc (Rs6bn), fishing 43.4pc (Rs13bn).

In the crops, the share of major crops dropped by 3.23pc (Rs15bn). However, major increase of over 52pc (Rs89bn) was witnessed in the share of minor crops. As part of the new base year, the share of cotton ginning/others were also calculated as part of crops.Earlier, cotton measurement was part of the manufacturing sector.

Ironically, the share of industrial sector in the size of overall economy dipped by 16pc (Rs308bn), reflecting a trend of de-industrialisation.

Of these the share of manufacturing dipped by 22.31pc (Rs306bn) in the industrial sector. However, mining and quarrying witnessed an increase of 15.9pc (Rs35bn).In the manufacturing sector, the share of LSM dipped by 9.97pc (Rs100bn); small scale manufacturing 63.82pc (Rs157bn) and slaughtering 40.16pc (Rs49bn), respectively.

On the other hand, the share of electricity generation and distribution and gas distribution share in the overall economy size dropped by 39pc (Rs43bn). However, the construction share increased by 3.22 pc (Rs6bn)..

http://dawn.com/2013/04/30/rebasing-approved-economy-size-expands-7...

[Riaz Haq]

Here's an AFP story on anti-polio campaign in Pakistan's North West:

Peshawar: Pakistani health teams will on Sunday launch a drive to vaccinate some 750,000 children in the troubled north-west, with thousands of police guarding against attacks by militants who claim the polio campaign is a front for spying.
The campaign in Peshawar district, which covers Peshawar city and dozens of towns and villages, is the ninth phase of a push to eradicate polio in Pakistan, which along with Nigeria and Afghanistan are the only countries where the disease remains endemic.
The World Health Organisation has warned that Peshawar is the world’s “largest reservoir” of polio.
“At least 750,000 children will be administered the vaccine in Peshawar district where 335,000 houses have been identified for the purpose,” campaign organiser Yunus Zaheer told AFP on Saturday.

The campaign, which started early February, will continue until the end of April.
Vaccinators go door-to-door every Sunday across Peshawar district to administer drops to children for various diseases including polio, tuberculosis, tetanus, pneumonia, whooping cough, measles and hepatitis.
Zaheer said more than 6,200 teams comprising 12,500 workers have been set up to administer the vaccines, adding 6,700 police officials would be deployed on security duty during the campaign.
He said the campaign is likely to be extended to other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province later.
A senior local administration official, Zaheer-ul-Islam, also confirmed the details of the campaign.
According to the WHO, Pakistan recorded 91 cases of polio last year, up from 58 in 2012.
Pakistan’s failure to defeat polio stands in stark contrast to its neighbour and great rival India, which recently celebrated the eradication of the disease three years after its last case.
Some 56 people including health workers and police officials providing security have been killed in militant attacks on polio vaccination teams in Pakistan since December 2012.
Militant groups such as the Pakistani Taliban oppose the immunisation drive, saying it is a cover for US spying.
Violence, and the threat of it, have badly hampered the campaign to stamp out polio in Pakistan.

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/pakistan/pakistan-to-vaccinate-750-0...

[Riaz Haq]

Here's a NY Times story on polio worries among the rich in Pakistan:

Until recently, polio was considered a poor man’s problem in Pakistan — a crippling virus that festered in the mountainous tribal belt, traversed the country on interprovincial buses, and spread via infected children who played in the open sewers of sprawling slums.

But since the World Health Organization declared a polio emergency here last week — identifying Pakistan, Syria and Cameroon as the world’s main reservoirs of the virus — the disease has become an urgent concern of the wealthy, too.

A W.H.O. recommendation that travelers not leave Pakistan without a polio vaccination certificate has caused confusion. Doctors, clinics and hospitals have been inundated with inquiries. The association of travel agents has reported “panic” among air travel customers.

Sakhina, a 3-year-old girl from Kabul, has contracted polio, the first confirmed case in the capital in 12 years. Her family previously lived in Pakistan and her father is a taxi driver who travels frequently to the tribal areas.Polio’s Return After Near Eradication Prompts a Global Health WarningMAY 5, 2014
video Video: Ask Well: The Polio VaccineMAY 9, 2014
“It’s very worrisome,” said Mohammad Akbar Khan, a passenger at the Karachi airport on Thursday, as his family clustered around a desk on the departures concourse normally used to immunize infants. “We just found out about this on the news, and we’re trying to find out what to do.”

The government, which is scrambling to meet the W.H.O. requirement, says it needs two weeks to make arrangements at airports and buy more vaccines. But to most Pakistanis, it is a jolting reminder of the gravity of a crisis that has been quietly building for years, and which is now, according to the W.H.O., spilling into other countries, threatening to undo decades of efforts to eradicate polio across the globe.

Despite years of multimillion-dollar immunization campaigns, led by the government and international organizations, this year Pakistan reported 59 new polio cases, by far the most of any country. The W.H.O. had reported only 68 cases worldwide as of April 30.

Instability is driving the crisis. The Taliban, which had long opposed the vaccinations as part of what its leaders said was a Jewish conspiracy, has stymied immunization efforts in the northwest and the tribal belt, where infection rates are highest. The Taliban have forbidden vaccinations in North Waziristan for years, and killed vaccination teams in other areas.
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One Pakistani Taliban militant, who identified himself as Gul, said in an interview that his group had attacked two polio teams in Karachi in 2012 because “they were trying to find the hide-outs of our leaders in these areas.”

But some experts say the bin Laden factor has been overstated, noting that the Taliban started to target polio workers long before the American commando raid that killed the Al Qaeda leader.

“The Taliban in North Waziristan didn’t stop the campaign because of Shakil Afridi, they did it for political reasons,” said Dr. Bhutta, referring to the Pakistani doctor hired by the C.I.A. to run the vaccination campaign in 2011. “And they’ve done themselves and the country a lot of damage.”

But for Mr. Ali, the immunizer jumping between buses outside Karachi, the most immediate problem is persuading reluctant parents. Some passengers offered up their children enthusiastically for immunization; others were cajoled into compliance by fellow passengers or even bus drivers.

But one mother, on a bus from Bahawalpur in Punjab Province, staunchly refused his entreaties to immunize her baby son.

“The vaccination is necessary against the virus. There are no side effects,” he pleaded.

“I’m his mother,” said the woman firmly.

Mr. Ali shrugged and retreated.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/11/world/asia/disease-of-pakistans-p...

[Riaz Haq]

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Determined to curb Pakistan’s polio crisis, police officials in the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa said Friday that they had issued hundreds of arrest warrants for parents for refusing to vaccinate their children.

“We had 13,000 to 16,000 refusal cases,” the deputy police commissioner for Peshawar, Riaz Khan Mahsud, said in an interview. “There is total determination on our part. We shall convince parents of the good of vaccinating their children, but if they refuse, we shall detain them. There is no leniency.”

The police in other districts of the province also reported issuing warrants, though no official total was released.

“The number keeps fluctuating,” said a senior government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the news media. “We are applying different laws. You have to resort to coercive measures when persuasion fails.”

The official added: “The application of laws is working. Some parents readily agree to vaccinate children to avoid detention. Others take a few days behind the bars to see reason. We take an affidavit from them and let them go if they bring kids for vaccination.”

Last year, 306 new polio cases were reported in Pakistan, breaking the country’s previous record high of 199 new cases in 2000.

“This was due to complacency and a very bad security situation,” said Dr. Imtiaz Ali Shah, head of the government’s polio monitoring group in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Dr. Shah said the outbreak was particularly bad in two northwestern tribal regions, North and South Waziristan, remote areas that have been havens for militants from Al Qaeda and the Taliban and their allies, making them mostly inaccessible to vaccination teams. Then, in June, the military began an offensive in North Waziristan to root out the militants, sending hundreds of thousands of refugees into the rest of Pakistan and across the border into Afghanistan.

The refugees “took the virus with them everywhere they went — in K.P., Baluchistan and Sindh,” Dr. Shah added. “There was a Ping-Pong, cases popping up here, cases popping up there.”

Despite this, Dr. Shah said the military operation had given officials the best chance in years for polio teams to make progress in the tribal areas.

So far there have been 13 new cases in all of Pakistan this year, 11 of them from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa or the tribal regions. “We have better access and better monitoring now,” Dr. Shah said. “The quality of the campaign has improved. I am confident the cases would come down to less than 100 this year.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/28/world/asia/pakistani-officials-is...

[Riaz Haq]

#Pakistan may become #polio free by next year: #UNICEF via @CatchNews http://goo.gl/7ReRqi 

"The progress and achievement in polio eradication efforts has raised the confidence of health teams and Pakistan has set the target of complete obstruction of polio transmission in Pakistan by May 2016," Johar said, adding, "In May 2016, Pakistan may be declared as Non-Endemic country for polio virus."

"Around 292,000 children from Khyber Agency, North Waziristan and South Waziristan Agencies were missed from immunisation in 2014 due to inaccessibility of health teams in these area," said Aqeel Ahmad, Media Liaison Officer, Polio Emergency Operation Center (EOC), FATA.

While in 2015, only 16,000 children have been missed in the country which is highly appreciable, Aqeel added.

This achievement became possible with the support of the military, especially due to improvement in security after launching of military operation Zarb-e-Azb, said Aqeel.

Johar also gave credit for reduction in polio cases to better security arrangements after launching of military operations in North Waziristan Agency and other parts of FATA including Khyber Agency.

The main reason behind the rise in number of polio cases between 2005 to 2014 was inaccessibility of health teams in tribal areas where hundreds of thousands of children were missed from immunisation resulting in contamination of disease, Johar said.

[Riaz Haq]

By tracing cellphones, #Pakistan makes inroads in war against #polio http://wpo.st/YPyp0 

The 85 percent decline in new cases this year is boosting confidence that Pakistani officials are on pace to stop the spread of the virus here, perhaps as early as next year. If Pakistan can achieve that goal, the world will take a major step toward becoming polio-free.

In late September, the World Health Organization declared that polio was no longer “endemic” in Nigeria, leaving only Pakistan and Afghanistan on the list of countries where the crippling virus continues to spread.

The revelation that the CIA had used a fake vaccination campaign to gain intelligence on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden in 2011 had been a huge blow to Pakistan’s efforts against the disease, especially in areas where Islamist militant groups were strong.

But as the militants have loosened their grip on Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt, health officials are now vaccinating hundreds of thousands of children for the first time.

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That coordination began late last year as Pakistan’s army pressed into North Waziristan, which had been controlled by Taliban militants and was largely off-limits to vaccination teams.

When more than 100,000 families were evacuated from the area, they were stopped at roadside checkpoints and forced to take a drop of the polio vaccine.

Later, when the displaced residents were registered at refugee camps, they were given a surprising offer: free SIM cards for their phones.

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Unbeknownst to North Waziristan residents, health officials used the SIM cards to track them as they resettled in other parts of the country. Their locations were mapped in new polio-eradication command centers. When clusters of residents from North Waziristan were identified on the map, teams of vaccinators were sent to those communities to, once again, administer the vaccine.

“We were able to trace them, map them and follow up with them,” said Safdar Rana, head of Pakistan’s Program on Immunization.

The controversial strategy was combined with outreach to religious leaders, the creation of community health centers and a renewed push to put women — not men — on the front lines of the country’s campaign to eradicate polio. But as with many other aspects of life here, the battle against polio is inextricably linked to efforts to overcome the threat posed by Islamist militancy.

Attacks on polio vaccination teams, provoked by the CIA ruse in 2011, resulted in the deaths of 74 people from 2012 to 2014, including 41 last year. So far this year, however, the number of deaths has dropped to 10, according to government figures.

[Riaz Haq]

Bill Gates predicts #polio eradication in #Pakistan by 2017 - Pakistan - Dunya News http://dunyanews.tv/en/Pakistan/332215-Bill-Gates-predicts-polio-er... …

Bill Gates said Wednesday that "with any luck" polio will be eradicated by 2017 in the last two countries where it remains active, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Microsoft founder, who has donated billions to fight global diseases, was speaking in Doha at the official announcement of a $50 million donation from Qatar to "The Lives and Livelihood Fund".

This is a partnership fund between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), who together have been working to try to eradicate diseases, including polio, since 2012.

"There’s very few cases left, just two countries at this point, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and with any luck either this year or next year we will have the last cases of those," Gates said.

Pakistan has already made it an official target to rid the country of polio -- an infectious viral disease resulting in muscle damage -- in 2016 though there have already been eight recorded cases so far this year.

Although these are the two countries where the disease remains endemic, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative calculates eight countries are "vulnerable" to the virus, including Cameroon, South Sudan and Syria.

The billionaire, who is the world’s richest-man according to Forbes, is also well-known for his work in trying to combat malaria.

Earlier this year he announced the launch of a $4 billion fund to help eradicate malaria, which he called the "world’s biggest killer".

The donation he received in Doha will go towards a fund seeking to provide affordable financing for the 30 least-wealthy countries among IDB members.

It aims to ease the burden for some of the world’s poorest people through grants and Sharia-compliant loans.

Gates said the injection of cash from Qatar will enable the fund to begin its work.

"This is a great milestone for helping the poorest," he said. "Qatar has always been very generous as a donor."
In total, the fund is trying to raise $2.5 billion.

The money has been donated by Doha through the Qatar Development Fund (QDF), a public body which distributes foreign aid.

The head of the QDF, Khalifa bin Jassim Al-Kuwari, said Qatar was "very interested in poverty reduction".

"We aim at launching several projects in the health sector, which will improve the quality of life for millions of people across the Muslim world," he said.

IDB president Ahmad Mohamed Ali Al Madani said help would go to those in war-torn regions, where possible.

"We try as much as we can to help the countries that suffers from conflicts depending on conditions," he said.

"If the conditions allow us to work, the Bank works."

[Riaz Haq]

BBC News - #Pakistan could beat #polio in months, says WHO

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36300034

Polio could be eradicated in Pakistan within months, health officials say, as a mass vaccination drive is launched.
A World Health Organisation spokesman told the BBC only a handful of cases have been reported this year in Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan.
The two countries are the last places where polio remains endemic.
It is hoped millions of children will be vaccinated over three days. Police escorts will guard against Islamist militants who oppose immunisations.
"The challenges we have are both logistics and security," the WHO's representative for Pakistan, Dr Michel Thieren, told the BBC.
He said about 70,000 medical staff aimed to immunise almost 10 million children in the drive, which is taking place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and semi-autonomous tribal areas in the north-west, as well as in south-west Balochistan province.
"They have with them 12 million doses for the coming three days," he said.

"We are very close. A handful of cases [were] noticed this year - about 11 in Pakistan and I think about five in Afghanistan.
"This is the lowest toll of cases in history. We expect to be within months of polio elimination in Pakistan."
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says the WHO's expression of optimism comes after the Pakistani authorities launched repeated anti-polio drives in high-risk areas.
Health teams gained access to formerly hostile regions in the north-west after the Pakistani military launched a 2014 offensive against the Taliban in North Waziristan.
Attacks on health workers have dropped since then, although they still remain a threat.
Islamist militants oppose vaccination, saying it is a Western conspiracy to sterilise Pakistani children.
In April seven policemen, three guarding polio workers, were killed in Karachi. A January bomb attack on a vaccination centre in Quetta killed 15 people.
Pakistan recorded more than 300 polio cases in 2014, its highest number since 1999. The number of cases fell to 52 last year.