Pakistan is affected by ongoing endemic wild poliovirus transmission and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2).
Another nationwide polio campaign kicked off from September 21 with the aim of reaching 40 million children across the country with the life-saving polio vaccine. This is the first nationwide campaign in Pakistan since February due to a four-month suspension during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The September nationwide polio campaign coincides with the recent news of Africa being certified as polio-free. With this development, Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are now the only remaining strongholds of the virus in the world.
Here are five reasons, we should all join hands to eradicate poliovirus.
YOUR GIFT WILL IMPROVE LIVES
Today, 19 million people who would otherwise be paralyzed by polio are walking, and 1.5 million people who would otherwise have died are alive.
YOUR GIFT WILL INVEST IN THE FUTURE
If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year. A polio-free world will be a healthier world for children everywhere.
YOUR GIFT WILL IMPROVE CHILD HEALTH
Polio surveillance networks and vaccination campaigns also monitor children for other
health problems, like vitamin deficiency and measles, so we can address them sooner.
YOUR GIFT WILL LOWER HEALTH CARE COSTS
The global effort to eradicate polio has already saved more than $27 billion in health
care costs since 1988, and expects to save $14 billion more by 2050.
Polio eradication will be one of history’s greatest public health achievements, with polio following smallpox to become only the second human disease eradicated from the world.
Source: GPEI
