Anti-polio drive underway in Punjab, Sindh

ISLAMABAD: A five-day anti-polio vaccination campaign to immunize more than twenty-one point five four million children under the age of five began in Punjab and Sindh on Monday.

The vaccination campaign is being held in two phases due to concurring activities of seventh national census.

In the first phase, over seventeen point four one million children in thirteen districts of Punjab and sixteen districts of Sindh and Islamabad will be vaccinated.

The second phase will be started from third of next month to vaccinate more than 4.12 million children in twelve districts of Balochistan and 26 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Minister for National Health Services Abdul Qadir Patel has urged parents to ensure that their children receive the life-saving polio vaccine so that they remain protected from poliovirus.

Read more: Over 62,000 parents refuse Polio vaccine in January drive

The Sehat Tahhafuz Helpline 1166 and WhatsApp Helpline 0346-777-65-46 will be available to assist parents and caregivers in reporting missed children and providing related information.

No case has been reported in Pakistan since September 2022 when a polio outbreak paralysed 20 children – all of them in southern KP districts. Wild poliovirus was detected for the first time this year in sewage samples collected from two separate sites in Lahore in January.