Anti-polio drive begins in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

According to details, 1.63 million children will be immunized from the virus during the anti-polio drive in Balochistan. Children upto 10 years of age will also be administered anti-polio drops at Pak-Afghan border.

Special security measures have been adapted to ensure safety of the health workers involved in the three-day polio immunization campaign.

Provincial health authorities have set up 213 transit points and mobilized 3,875 mobile teams to complete the drive against the crippling virus.

Polio drive underway in KP

Meanwhile, a three-day anti-polio campaign has also been launched in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Frontier Regions from Monday (today) in which more than a million children will be immunized from the virus.

According to Emergency Operations Center Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, over one million children below the age of five years would be administered anti-polio drops in 13 districts of the province, FATA and Frontier Regions during the campaign.

KP’s Emergency Operations Center stated that the anti-polio drops will be administered to children under five years of age in 13 districts of the province during the drive.

The concerned authorities have also taken steps for immunizing the children of Temporarily Displaced Persons (TDPs).

The provincial health department has set up 3,939 teams for the campaign.

Efforts to get rid of the polio virus in Pakistan have been complicated in recent years, as the polio vaccination teams subjected to attacks by the militants who see a ‘western conspiracy’ in polio immunization campaigns.

The officials, however, claimed this year that the country is moving closer to eradicating the polio.