Five-day nationwide polio vaccination drive kicks off

ISLAMABAD: A five-day nationwide polio vaccination campaign kicked off on Monday. 

According to the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme, as many as 39 million children under the age of 5 years will be administered anti-polio vaccine drops across the country during the campaign that will continue until December 04.

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Dr Safdar Rana, the head of the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) of the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme, said a total of 285,000 polio teams will take part in the campaign.

In all, 9 million children will be vaccinated against the crippling disease in Sindh, 20 million in Punjab, 2.5 million in Balochistan, 6.5 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 240,000 in Gilgit Baltistan, 360,000 in Islamabad, and 660,000 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

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Dr Safdar appealed to religious scholars of all schools of thought to play their role in making the drive a success. A total of 81 cases of poliovirus have been reported this year thus far, he said. Of them, 23 were reported from Balochistan, 22 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 22 from Sindh, and 14 from Punjab.