ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday launched its five-day nationwide anti-polio campaign to immunize children under the age of five against the crippling disease after sewage samples in Lahore tested positive for wild poliovirus in previous months.
The first phase of the polio vaccination campaign has kicked off in 13 districts of Punjab and 16 districts of Sindh and Islamabad to vaccinate around 21 million children under the age of five.
Campaign’s second phase from April 3
The campaign’s second phase will start on April 3 and last till April 7. In the second phase, the polio vaccination will vaccinate children under five in 12 districts of Balochistan and 26 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
According to an Official in the ministry, this year, the fight against this crippling disease intensified due to the surge in new infections last year. He said the government is fully committed to eradicating polio from Pakistan to meet its international commitments. Still, parents must play their role and cooperate with the polio teams during these campaigns to save their children.
It is worth mentioning that the 20 polio cases in Pakistan in 2022 were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, mainly in its violence-hit North Waziristan district on the Afghan border.
Pakistan has repeatedly come close to eradicating polio, but long-running propaganda in conservative rural areas that the vaccines cause sterility in children, coupled with deadly militant attacks on vaccinators, have set back the mission.
It is alarming in Pakistan as two environmental samples collected from two separate places in Lahore tested positive for wild poliovirus in January. The first positive sample of 2023 was detected on January 19. It was genetically linked to the poliovirus found in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan in November 2022, according to the national polio lab at the National Institute of Health.
The second positive sample was reported on January 27, genetically linked to a virus circulating in south KP.
