TO FIGHT AGAINST THE VIRAL DISEASE
Pakistan has launched its first anti-polio campaign of the year, in Islamabad, with the hope to immunize more than 44 million children under the age of five to fight against the disease.
On Monday the three-day campaign started in more than 150 districts of the country, debilitating neurodegenerative disease is still endemic along with in Afghanistan are the only two countries.
Polio drops administered by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday where he formally inaugurated the campaign at an event in the capital, Islamabad.
“I have the conviction that all the provincial governments along with the federal government will continue collaborating to eradicate the disease forever,” at the ceremony Sharif address.
Sharif said a resurgence of the virus has raised global concerns, including from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other stakeholders.
“Unfortunately, Pakistan was one of the few countries where polio cases has resurfaced,” a statement from the prime minister’s office mentioned.
“A few years back, during the government of Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, these cases were completely eradicated,” it said, by referring to his elder brother and a former prime minister.
Just one case of polio was witnessed in the year 2021 in Pakistan, which raises the hopes of success to fight against the disease.
However, that number rose to 20 in 2022, all of them detected in the northwestern area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
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