Pakistan reports first polio case of 2023
- By Jahangir Khan -
- Mar 17, 2023
ISLAMABAD: With Pakistan struggling to eradicate the crippling disease, the first polio case of the year 2023 was confirmed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Bannu district on Friday, ARY News reported quoting health officials.
According to a spokesman for National Ministry for Health, the poliovirus was found in a child from Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
“In the outgoing year 2022, as many as 20 cases of poliovirus were reported across the country.
Meanwhile, a five-day anti-polio vaccination campaign to immunize more than 21.54 million children under the age of five was underway in Punjab and Sindh.
The vaccination campaign was 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.