The government launched a nationwide anti-polio campaign today.
Polio is a crippling childhood disease caused by the polio virus and is preventable through immunization. As it mostly affects children under the age of five, polio can only be prevented by giving a child multiple vaccine doses. Failure to do so can potentially lead to irreversible paralysis.
Islamabad
Currently, over 0.3 million polio vaccinations will be administered in the capital. Relevant authorities have appointed over 5000 workers to effectively execute the anti-polio drive.
Punjab
4,700 teams have been readied to launch the campaign that aims to target over 1.7 million children across Lahore.
Deputy Commissioner Lahore Anwar-ul-Haq also said that assistant commissioners and sub-registrars are going to be closely monitoring the aforementioned teams.
Appropriate security measures have been taken to protect the teams throughout the three-day campaign that will end on August 8.
Sindh
With the goal of carrying out 2.4 million vaccinations in Karachi, the anti-polio campaign shall last for seven days, according to the spokes person of the emergency operation cell.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Alongside the goal of carrying out 816,000 vaccinations in Peshawar alone, 16 high-risk districts have been identified to carry out a grand total of 36,27,000 vaccinations. This campaign shall last for five days and will be implemented by 13 team.
Balochistan
According to Coordinator Anti-Polio Emergency Operation Centre Syed Faisal Ahmed, there are 6,067 mobile teams poised to conduct a three day campaign in 19 districts that aims to target 1.7 million vaccinations.
Alongside provincial efforts, there will be vaccination teams present at 413 transit points and 521 other miscellaneous points to further enhance the scope of the campaign.
Pakistan remains one of only three countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan and Nigeria, that has yet to eradicate polio.
In order for the World Health Organization to consider Pakistan as country that has eradicated polio, the country must have no cases for three consecutive years.
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