Summary The campaign will be launched in two phases.
KARACHI (Dunya News) – Last anti-polio campaign of current year launched in two phases in Karachi from today (Tuesday).
In first phase, the drive will be carried out in Malir, East and West districts while the second phase will be initiated on December 13 in Korangi, South and North districts.
The teams will inoculate polio drops to children below age five. Local administration has also ensured foolproof security of the workers in this regard.
Health teams in Pakistan have been attacked repeatedly since the Taliban denounced vaccines as a Western plot to sterilize Muslims and imposed bans on inoculation in June 2012.
There is evidence in tests conducted on sewage samples in some of the country s major cities that the polio virus is starting to spread beyond these isolated pockets and could soon spark fresh polio outbreaks in more densely populated areas.
The virus has been cornered to just a handful of areas in Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the three countries where polio is endemic. Global cases have dropped by more than 99.9 percent in less than three decades, from 350,000 in 1985 to just 223 last year, according to the GPEI.
The World Health Organization says as long as any child remains infected, children everywhere are at risk.
