ISLAMABAD: Forty million Pakistani children will receive polio drops in the country’s first anti-polio campaign in 2021, the health ministry said on Sunday.
The highly infectious disease caused by the poliovirus that invades the nervous system and can cause paralysis or even death. Children under five are the most vulnerable, but people can be fully protected with vaccines.
The five-day nationwide campaign will start on Monday.
“Our aim is to ensure timely and repeated vaccination of children. This is key to reduce the immunity gap and to protect our children against polio and other diseases,” Dr. Faisal Sultan, the prime minister’s special assistant on health, said as quoted in a statement by the Pakistan Polio Eradication Program (PPEP).
During the immunization drive, a supplementary dose of vitamin A drops will be administered to children aged between six months to five years “help build general immunity among susceptible children to protect them from polio and other diseases,” PPEP said.
The campaign will involve 285,000 health workers.
“With our highly committed frontline workers, and the cooperation of parents and caregivers, the program aims to restrict the geographic scope of poliovirus circulation to the high-risk areas only and get closer to the goal of eradication in 2021,” Dr. Rana Muhammad Safdar, polio eradication coordinator at the National Institute of Health, said as quoted by PPEP.
Along with its neighbor Afghanistan, Pakistan is one of the world’s two polio-endemic countries. Last year, 83 polio cases were reported across the country.