F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s health ministry on Sunday announced it would undertake an anti-polio campaign that aims to vaccinate 16.5 million against the disease.
The development takes place a day after Pakistan reported its fourth polio case of the year on Saturday, when a toddler from the country’s southern Shikarpur city was found infected with the disease.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where the poliovirus, which causes paralysis and can be a life-threatening disease, is endemic.
“More than 16.5 million children under the age of five will be vaccinated in a crucial polio campaign beginning on June 3 in 66 districts, ahead of the high-travel season of Eid-ul-Adha,” the health ministry said in a press release.
It said the five-day campaign will be implemented in 36 districts in full and partially in 30 districts, including Islamabad, 20 districts of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, 23 districts of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 16 districts of Sindh and six districts of Punjab.
Prime minister’s coordinator on national health services, Malik Mukhtar Ahmed Bharath, called on parents and caregivers to ensure their children received the best care possible.
“Poliovirus has paralyzed 04 children this year and is consistently being detected in sewage samples, which means the risk to children remains very high,” he said.
“We are resolved to end polio from our country and the support of parents and communities is critical in helping us achieve this goal,” Bharath added.
The ministry said it has adjusted the working hours of polio voluntary workers given the prevalent heat wave in the country, and is taking other measures such as providing access to hydration resources to ensure polio workers’ safety remains a priority.
Pakistan’s efforts to contain polio have often been met with opposition, especially in KP, where militants have carried out attacks against vaccinators and security teams guarding them.
Many believe in the conspiracy theory that polio vaccines are part of a plot by Western outsiders to sterilize Pakistan’s population.
Pakistani masses’ doubts regarding polio campaigns were exacerbated in 2011 when the US Central Intelligence Agency set up a fake hepatitis vaccination program to gather intelligence on former Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
