The National Institute of Health (NIH) has confirmed a new case of polyomyelitis in Bannu, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, which takes the total number of cases in the province this year to three and eight throughout the country, authorities said on Friday.
Confirmation occurs when Pakistan carries out its second polyomyelitis vaccination campaign throughout the year, with the aim of immunizing more than 45.4 million children under five years of age, including 2.6 million in the province of southwest Baluchistan scarcely populated with Baluchistan.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had praised the country’s anti-political efforts at a high-level review meeting, noting that no new cases had been reported since February 10. It accredited the success of the current national initiatives and the support of international partners.
The current inoculation campaign, which began this week, will run until April 27, with another impulse scheduled for May 26 to June 1. Health officials continue to urge parents to make sure their children are vaccinated several times to develop immunity against highly contagious virus.
Polyomyelitis remains endemic in just two countries worldwide, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The virus, which mainly affects children under five years of age, can cause irreversible paralysis, but can be prevented with a few drops of oral vaccine.
