Pakistan launched its first anti-polio campaign of the year on Sunday, aimed at 44.2 million children under the age of five.
Polio is still a threat to the health and well-being of children in only two countries around the world: Pakistan and Afghanistan. Polio affects children’s nervous systems, eventually leading to paralysis.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif launched the nationwide campaign by giving the polio vaccine to children in Islamabad, saying Pakistan was one of the few countries still affected by the disease.
Last year, twenty cases were reported in the tribal North Waziristan area, but the disease was contained among other children through immunisation, according to Sharif.
Approximately 44 million children will be immunised across 156 districts. This includes 22.54 million children in the provinces of Punjab, 10.1 million in Sindh, and 7.4 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Sharif stated that his government, along with other stakeholders such as US billionaire Bill Gates and the World Health Organization, were effectively contributing to Pakistan’s polio eradication.
He gave away appreciation certificates at the launch to frontline polio workers and praised their “invaluable sacrifices”.
In Pakistan, polio teams and police officers assigned to protect them have been targeted on numerous occasions. Militants falsely accuse vaccination campaigns of being a Western plot to sterilise children.
