ISLAMABAD: Pakistan kicked off a week-long nationwide anti-polio vaccination campaign in an effort to eradicate the crippling disease, according to the Ministry of National Health Services.
During the week-long campaign, millions of children under the age of five would be administered polio drops, Minister for Health Abdul Qadir Patel said, appealing to the parents to cooperate in making the country polio-free.
Thousands of anti-polio workers will be engaged in the drive to inoculate the children at their doorstep in all four provinces of the country, with a special focus on children living in flood-affected areas.
The vaccination will be carried out in 28 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 14 districts of Punjab, while around 6.5 million children in Sindh and over 1.7 million in Balochistan will be given polio vaccine drops during the campaign.
Pakistan recorded 20 cases of polio so far this year, and all the cases were detected in KP province bordering Afghanistan, according to government estimates.
