Pakistan kicks off anti-Polio drive today

ISLAMABAD - A three-day anti-polio campaign will begin in selected districts of the country from today (Monday).

The campaign will begin in 88 districts and towns, while in six districts of Balochistan, which include Zhob, Killa Saifullah, Dukki, Loralai, Musakhel and Barkhan, it will start from 19th of this month.

The program will target a total of 21.3 million under five children, including 6.88 million in 12 districts of Punjab, 7 million in 36 districts and towns of Sindh, 5.5 million in 25 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 1.5 million in 20 districts of Balochistan and 0.33 million in Islamabad.

A total of 150,000 personnel will strive to achieve the set targets across Pakistan, including 16,847 Area Incharges, 4,004 Medical Officers, 110,449 Mobile, 5,305 Fixed and 7,842 Transit team members.

In addition, 46 experts have been deployed to facilitate preparedness and ground implementation of campaign activities by the local teams in priority areas.

Due to effective measures of the government, polio cases have declined from 306 in 2014 to eight so far in 2018.

Polio remains endemic in three countries Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.