Three-day anti polio drive begins in Balochistan
Atleast 14,93,000 children below the age of five years will be inoculated polio drops.
BALOCHISTAN (Dunya News) – Three-day anti-polio campaign has begun in 13 districts of Balochistan.
Coordinator of Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) in Balochistan Dr Syed Saifur Rehman has said that atleast 14,93,000 children below the age of five years will be inoculated polio drops for which 3619 mobile teams and 395 fixed support centers have been formed.
Personnel of police and Levies Force alongwith Army and Frontier Corps (FC) have been deployed to provide fool proof security to the polio workers.
Polio is a highly infectious disease that invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis in a matter of hours.
Know More: Multan anti-polio drive deferred until May 2 after health team attacked in Karachi
A $5.5 billion global eradication plan was launched in April with the aim of vaccinating 250 million children multiple times each year to stop the virus finding new footholds, and stepping up surveillance in more than 70 countries.
It is now endemic in only two countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s polio cases are declining, with just 54 cases of polio virus reported last year, down more than 80 percent from 2014, when the country suffered a large spike in cases.
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 sterilise children.
On April 21, seven policemen, guarding polio team were killed in two different attacks in Karachi’s Orangi Town.
Also Read: Seven policemen martyred in Karachi gun attacks
In January, a suicide bomber killed at least 15 people outside a polio eradication centre in the restive western city of Quetta, with two militant groups claiming responsibility.
