ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's health ministry on Monday announced to launch an anti-polio campaign from May 23 after three new cases of the disease emerged in the country's northwest in recent weeks.
Polio has been eliminated from the rest of the world, though Pakistan and Afghanistan continue to struggle with it.
Young children under the age of five are considered extremely vulnerable to the disease, though parents can protect them against its lifelong impact by building their immunity through vaccination.
The ministry said in an official statement the upcoming campaign was previously supposed to be confined to a few regions, though its officials have now decided to spread it across Pakistan.
"The government is committed to eradicating polio," said health minister Abdul Qadir Patel. "Parents are urged to give polio drops to their children during the campaign."
Pakistan's health ministry has also requested civil society activists and the media to play their role in creating awareness among people about the paralyzing effects of the disease for the success of the vaccination drive.
"Eradicating polio is our religious and moral responsibility," it said in a statement.
Pakistan reported its first polio case this year on April 22, when a 15-month-old boy from Mir Ali in North Waziristan was found infected with the virus.
The case was reported after a gap of more than a year.
The country found the second case within the next few days on April 29.
The third case was also reported in North Waziristan on Sunday where a one-year-old child was paralyzed by the disease.
