Anti-polio campaign begins across Pakistan
Pakistan's polio cases are declining.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - Anti-polio campaign was launched in Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Tribal Areas on Monday morning.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah inaugurated four-day polio eradication campaign by administering polio drops to the children at Government hospital Ibrahim Hyderi in Karachi.
Over 7.6 million children up to the age of five years will be vaccinated across the province during the campaign.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, polio teams are visiting door to door to administer polio vaccine drops to the children in high risk districts including, Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Mardan, Swabi, Swat, Kohat, Karak, Hangu, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan.
About 1.7 million children will be administered anti-polio drops in the thirteen districts of Balochistan during three-day campaign.
In Multan, more than 800,000 children will be inoculated during three-day campaign. Over 1700 mobile teams have been formed for this purpose.
Pakistan s polio cases are declining, with just 54 cases of wild polio virus reported last year, down more than 80 percent from 2014, when the country suffered a large spike in cases.
According to the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS), Pakistan has witnessed a 62 per cent drop in polio cases during the current year.
So far, 15 polio cases have been recorded this year.
Efforts to eliminate polio in Pakistan have been complicated in recent years, as polio workers have faced attacks by militants who say the health teams are Western spies, or that the vaccines they administer are intended to sterilize children.
