ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will be launching a week-long immunization campaign on Monday to eradicate the poliovirus, state media reported.
Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease caused by the poliovirus, which mainly affects children under the age of five. The virus invades the nervous system and can cause paralysis or even death in some cases.
The crippling disease has no cure and repeated vaccination is the most effective way to protect children against it.
Under the National Immunization Programme, the latest drive aims to vaccinate more than 22 million children in the South Asian country, the state-run APP news agency reported.
“All-out arrangements have been finalized by the National Immunization campaign against polio to save children from the crippling disease,” the report said, quoting a health official.
Mobile teams had been formed that would visit remote, far-flung and flood-hit areas as well as Afghan refugee camps in Islamabad and other districts to accomplish the task, he added.
The polio vaccine has protected millions of children from polio, allowing almost all countries in the world to become polio-free.
Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two endemic countries in the world.
