ISLAMABAD, Mar 13 (NNN-APP) – A polio vaccination campaign, to immunise more than 21.54 million children under the age of five, will kick off in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province and eastern Punjab province today, the Pakistani Health Ministry said.
In the first phase of the drive, more than 17 million children, during the five-day campaign, from today to Mar 17, would be vaccinated in 13 districts of Punjab, 16 districts of Sindh and the federal capital Islamabad, the ministry said in a statement yesterday.
The second phase would be held from Apr 3 to Apr 7, to vaccinate more than four million children in 12 districts of south-west Balochistan province and 26 districts of north-west Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, including the seven endemic districts in the southern region of KP.
Pakistani Health Minister, Abdul Qadir Patel, urged parents and caregivers to ensure that their children receive the life-saving polio vaccine, so that they remain protected from poliovirus.
“The presence of wild polio in the environment shows that the virus is circulating in our communities and posing a serious risk to our children,” the minister was quoted as saying.
Wild poliovirus was detected for the first time this year in sewage samples, collected from two separate sites in Punjab’s capital Lahore in Jan, said the ministry.
Two more samples have since then tested positive for polio – wild polio was detected in a sample collected from the Dera Ismail Khan district of KP, and a variant poliovirus was detected from the Ghotki district of Sindh, according to the statement.– NNN-APP
