A week-long polio eradication campaign began across Pakistan on Monday amid tight security to ensure its smooth march against the crippling disease, which has reported 63 cases so far this year.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where the paralytic virus is still prevalent.
During the campaign, more than 44.7 million children under the age of five will be vaccinated. A campaign has been started in 143 districts of the country to prevent the resurgence of the polio virus.
The target is to vaccinate 23.3 million children in 36 districts of Punjab, 7.2 million in 36 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 10.6 million in 30 districts of Sindh and 2.6 million in 36 districts of Balochistan.
In addition, more than 800,000 children will be vaccinated in five districts of Islamabad, Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province alone, 54,000 security personnel, including police and Frontier Corps troops, have been deployed to protect polio vaccinators in the restive parts of the province.
Kurram district has been excluded from the anti-polio campaign due to the security situation of the district, which has a border with Afghanistan.
News agency AP reported that authorities deployed thousands of police officers to protect health workers after intelligence reports that insurgents may target them.
Citing health officials and officials, the AP said more than 200 polio workers and policemen assigned to protect them have been killed since the 1990s.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Sehbaz Sharif on Sunday inaugurated the last campaign of the year by administering polio drops to children under the age of five and reiterated his resolve to eradicate the disease from Pakistan.
In his speech, the Prime Minister expressed concern over the increasing incidence of polio. However, he assured the nation that this challenge will be overcome with the cooperative efforts of the federal and state governments.
Pakistan’s efforts to eradicate Polio The shock came as the national number of infections reached 63 in 2024, a sharp contrast to the six cases reported in 2023.
Pakistan had reduced to just one case of polio in 2021, giving hope that the country would soon achieve polio-free status, but the threat returned in 2022 with 20 new cases. Infections peaked earlier in 2019 when 147 new cases were reported.
There is no cure for polio. Multiple doses of oral polio vaccine and completion of the regular immunization schedule for all children under the age of five can only protect them.
Afghanistan has reported at least 23 confirmed cases in 2024, according to WHO data
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