Anti-polio campaign in 36 districts to start from Nov 28

News Reporter
ISLAMABAD: A special round of anti-polio campaigns will commence from Nov 28 (Monday) in the 36 high-risk districts of the country to ensure immunization of children up to five years of age.
The third anti-polio drive of this year has set the target to administer polio drops to 13.5 million children across the country.
The target districts include nine of Punjab, eight districts of Sindh, six of Balochistan, and Islamabad.
The campaign will be started in nine high-risk districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Dec 5.
The campaign will involve more than 100,000 trained “health guards”, who will go door-to-door and administer the drops to children under the age of five.
The health workers will also visit public spots, markets, transport stands, and other places in this regard.
Pertinent to note, a total of 20 polio cases have been reported in Pakistan. All the reported cases were from the country’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Among them, 17 polio cases have come from North Waziristan, 2 from Lakki Marwat, and one from South Waziristan.
However, the presence of poliovirus has been detected in other parts of the country as well.
Unfortunately, poliovirus is not being eradicated in the province due to negative propaganda. The parents also fall victim to mistakes due to the propaganda and rumours, and do not give polio vaccine to children for which more work is being done now.