During the campaign, 45 million children under five years of age will receive the polio vaccine.
ISLAMABAD:
A week-long anti-polio campaign will begin across the country on Monday (today), Radio Pakistan reported.
During the campaign, the polio vaccine will be administered to 45 million children under five years of age.
Health workers will go door-to-door, in both urban and remote areas, to give children the polio vaccine and vitamin A supplements.
First Lady Bibi Aseefa Bhutto Zardari has called on families and communities across Pakistan to fully cooperate with the national polio vaccination campaign starting tomorrow to ensure that all children are protected from the disease.
In a statement, he highlighted the progress of previous campaigns and said that last year 31 cases of polio were reported, while only one case has been recorded so far this year.
Aseefa said, however, that the threat of disease still persists and stressed the need to repeat vaccination in each campaign and routine immunization.
He further said that the current campaign is being carried out in coordination with Afghanistan to curb cross-border transmission.
The First Lady also thanked frontline workers and called for collective efforts to achieve a polio-free Pakistan, emphasizing that no child should be left behind.
The week-long campaign will vaccinate more than 45 million children under five across the country. Health workers will go door-to-door in both urban and remote areas for this purpose and will also administer vitamin A supplements to children.
In February, when reports emerged that around a million children had been turned away during the year’s first national polio campaign, Karachi stood out among cities with the highest number of rejection cases.
A total of 53,000 refusals were reported across the country, and 58 percent in Karachi alone, during the vaccination drive, which concluded on February 5 in most cities but continued until February 8 in Sindh.
