Five-day anti-polio drive from tomorrow

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Five-day anti-polio drive from tomorrow

ISLAMABAD, NOV 26 (DNA) — A five-day anti-polio campaign will begin across the country from Monday. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, more than 7.4 million children up to five years of age will be administered polio drops by 31,000 teams during the campaign.

In Balochistan, more than 11,000 teams have been constituted for the drive to inoculate 2.5 million children.  According to the Polio Emergency Operation Center, vaccination campaign in Quetta, Pishin and Qilla Abdullah was launched on Friday.

In Sindh, teams comprising more than 80,000 workers will go door to door to vaccine more than 10 million children age in 30 districts of the province. Meanwhile, the Sindh chief secretary has directed the health department to ensure that the children are administered polio drops at all railway stations and bus terminals as well.

Polio teams will be deployed at bus stops, railway stations, Afghan refugee camps and other public places to ensure every child is vaccinated. On November 11, the Ministry of Health reported that a 31-month-old child had been diagnosed with polio in Karachi, marking the fifth case in Pakistan this year.

The health ministry has confirmed that the polio virus was found in a 31-month-old child from UC Gujro in Gadap Town of Karachi East. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio continues to threaten the health and well-being of children. — DNA