ISLAMABAD: Pakistani health authorities on Sunday kicked off the second phase of a five-day anti-polio campaign to vaccinate children up to the age of five in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, state-run media reported.

Pakistan initiated the anti-polio campaign countrywide last Monday but in KP, the second phase of the five-day campaign will be carried out in 33 districts of the province from today, Sunday. 

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where the poliovirus, which causes paralysis and can be a life-threatening disease, is endemic.

“The second phase of the five-day anti-polio campaign begins in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa today,” Radio Pakistan said. “During the second phase, more than seven point one million children up to five years of age will be administered anti-polio vaccine drops.”

Pakistan last week launched its second nationwide campaign against the disease. The first campaign this year was held from January 8-14 in which over 43 million children were vaccinated, according to official figures.

Pakistan’s efforts to contain polio have often been met with opposition, especially in the country’s northwestern KP province, where militants have carried out attacks against vaccinators and the security teams guarding them. Many believe in the conspiracy theory that polio vaccines are part of a plot by Western outsiders to sterilize Pakistan’s population.

Pakistani masses’ doubts regarding polio campaigns were exacerbated in 2011 when the US Central Intelligence Agency set up a fake hepatitis vaccination program to gather intelligence on former Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.