Nationwide anti-polio drive

ISLAMABAD: Closest ever to its goal, Pakistan starts its final push towards interruption of polio virus with the first nationwide door-to-door national campaign of 2018-19 from September 24 in all districts except Sheikhupura and Orakzai, where the drive will begin from the 25th.

The campaign is fully synchronised with Afghanistan to ensure effective vaccination of mobile children as well.

The programme will target a total of 38.6 million children under five, including 19.22 million in Punjab, 8.88 million in Sindh, 6.75 million in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (including tribal districts), 2.5 million in Balochistan, 0.7 million in AJK, 0.237 million in Gilgit-Baltistan and 0.33 million in Islamabad.

During the three-day campaign, Vitamin-A supplement will be administered to around 35 million children aged between 6 and 59 months, along with OPV aimed at boosting immunity against all infectious diseases, including measles.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's recent successes actualising a case decline from highs of 306 in 2014 to 54 in 2015 to 20 in 2016 and eight in 2017. In 2018, only four polio cases have so far been reported from two districts – three from Dukki and one from Charsadda.