Nationwide polio campaign begins to immunize 23mn children

ISLAMABAD: A nationwide polio campaign has begun in Pakistan with a target to administer drops to 23 million children across the country in a bid to fight the crippling disease, ARY NEWS reported.

The polio campaign will be run in all four provinces of the country including Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, and KP and federal capital Islamabad.

National Coordinator for Polio programme Dr. Shahzad Baig said that 179,000 polio workers would participate in the nationwide campaign while completely adopting COVID SOPs.

“Administering polio drops to children upto the age of five years old is mandatory and the parents should welcome workers reaching out to them,” he said.

He said that only one polio case was reported in the country during the ongoing year from Balochistan.

Previously, it has been reported quoting sources in Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) that the polio drive will begin on August 02 and will culminate on August 06 as it included three days of routine immunization and two days for the catch-up areas to immunize the remaining children.

“The drive will be carried out in 67 districts of the country including 22 in Punjab, 18 in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and 16 districts in Balochistan,” they said.

It is pertinent to mention here that Prime Minister Imran Khan on June 24 expressed the hope that Pakistan will become polio-free the next year.

Taking to Twitter, Prime Minister Khan said only one case of the crippling disease has been reported this year so far. “InshaAllah we will eradicate it completely in coming yr,” he said.

He said he spoke with Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, last night and thanked him for the help his Foundation has provided for polio eradication in Pakistan.