Pakistan kicks off nationwide Anti-Polio vaccination campaign today

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s government kicked off a nationwide campaign today, Monday, to vaccinate 16.5 million children against poliovirus, as the South Asian country grapples with the potentially life-threatening disease.

The campaign in Punjab began in six districts and will continue through this month’s ninth. 6.4 million children in the districts of Lahore, Okara, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan, and Mianwali will get the vaccination.

Twenty districts, including Karachi, were part of a seven-day special anti-polio vaccination effort in Sindh. During this time, almost 4.5 million children under the age of five will receive vaccinations.

Today, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa launched a five-day vaccination campaign spanning twenty-three districts to vaccinate approximately 3.5 million children against Polio.

A seven-day program aimed at approximately 1.8 million children in fourteen districts of Balochistan got underway. The campaign in Naseerabad, Sibi, Jaffarabad, Usta Muhammad, Dera Bugti, and Sohbatpur will start on the eighth of this month due to an anticipated heat wave.