Anti-polio drive kicks off in KP, Balochistan, Sindh

QUETTA: Amid tight security, a three-day anti-polio campaign kicked off in 25 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 26 districts of Sindh and 21 of Balochistan on Monday. 

About 5.6 million children up to five years of age will be administered anti-polio vaccine during the campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said the provincial health department. Over 27,000 teams have been constituted which will got door to door to ensure each and every child is administered polio drops.

Polio teams have also been deployed at bus stops, railway stations, Afghan refugee camps and other public places.

Similarly, all age anti-polio vaccination campaign also began at Pak-Afghan border in Torkham to stop cross-border infiltration of polio virus.

In Balochistan, over 1.7 million children up to five years of age would be administered anti-polio drops during the campaign. About 6,000 mobile teams have been constituted for this purpose.

In Sindh, about 6 million children, including more than 2.3 million in Karachi, will be vaccinated during the drive. Strict security measures have been taken for security of polio teams.

Read More: As polio goal nears, Pakistan pushes against vaccine misinformation

Lately, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s office had urged the country’s telecoms regulator to take action against misinformation spread on social media discouraging vaccination against polio and other diseases.

“The parental refusals due to misconceptions regarding the vaccine are emerging as the major obstacle in achieving complete eradication,” Khan’s office said in a letter to the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority head, referring to parents who refuse to get their children vaccinated.