More than 44 million children under the age of five in Pakistan will be immunized to protect them from viral disease in a national wide anti-polio campaign.
The campaign which started on Monday and will last 3 days is taking place in more than 150 districts national wide.
Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif kicked off the campaign in the capital Islamabad on Sunday where he administered polio drops to children.
Sharif said that he hoped that all provincial governments along with the federal government will continue collaborating to eradicate the disease forever.
He said that World Health Organization (WHO) and other stakeholders have raised concerns about the resurgence of the virus.
According to the prime office, it’s unfortunate that Pakistan was among the few countries where polio cases had resurfaced after all cases were eradicated during the government of Muhammad Nawaz Sharif.
According to the report, Pakistan registered one case in 2021raising hopes of success in its battle against the disease but the number of cases increased to 20 in 2022 which were all recorded in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are yet to be declared free of the Wild Polio virus type 1 (WPV-1) disease.
Pakistan Launches Year’s First Nationwide Anti-Polio Campaign
I'm a senior member at Forsige covering topics on diplomacy and foreign policy relating to Asia and the World.