Anti-polio drive targeting 0.4 million children begins in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD – Capital administration on Sunday started anti-polio drive targeting over 0.4 million children under the age of five years.

Additional Deputy Commissioner East Usman Ashraf launched the campaign with District Health Officer Zaeem Zia and Director Health Services Dr Iqbal Afridi by administering polio drops to children under five years of age at CDA Health Centre I-8 Markaz.

Sharing his view, the official said polio teams and health workers would administer polio drops house to house in Islamabad.

At least 408,000 children up to five years of age would be administered vaccine against crippling disease. Polio workers will visit also public places, markets, bus stands and other places to immunize young children.

The official directed concerned officials and workers to take all possible measures to immunize the targeted children.

The drive was launched amid rising polio cases in the country. In the ongoing year, more than 20 cases of the contagious disease were reported in North Waziristan.

Earlier, National Polio Lab detected the child-crippling disease virus in sewage water samples collected from five cities, including Peshawar, Swat, Rawalpindi, Bannu, and South Waziristan.

Child dies from polio in northwestern Pakistan; cases tally rises to 20

Polio is a highly infectious and debilitating disease that is usually spread through contaminated water or food. Invading the nervous system, the disease can cause total paralysis within hours.

The contagious virus thrived in the borderlands between Pakistan and Afghanistan where militants attacked and even killed anti-polio teams.