Anti-polio drive to kick off in Balochistan tomorrow

QUETTA: A seven-day anti-polio dive is all set to kick off across Balochistan from tomorrow (Monday), ARY News reported.

The provincial task force on polio eradication said that over 2.655 million children across the province would be immunized during the week-long drive.

The children will also be given Vitamin A drops during the campaign.

It is important to note here that no polio case has been registered in Balochistan since 2021

However on January 21, Ministry of Health sources confirmed the presence of poliovirus in sewage samples of the Lasbela district of Balochistan.

According to sources within the Health Ministry, Type-1 Wild Poliovirus (WPV1) was detected in sewage samples collected from Lasbela district.

“The genome sequencing of the virus, found in samples collected from Lasbela and Hub, showed that it belonged to Gadap Karachi.

Last month, the Ministry of Health confirmed the presence of poliovirus in environmental samples from nine districts of the country.

Earlier, countrywide anti-polio vaccination campaign to immunise more than 40 million children under the age of five was conducted on January 8 in three phases