Islamabad - Pakistani authorities have targeted 40 million
children in the first nationwide polio vaccination drive of the year
that began on Monday amid fears of a resurgence.
More than 250,000 health workers would be on the streets throughout
the week to vaccinate children under the age of five, Pakistan's
health chief Zafar Mirza said.
Thousands of police and paramilitary soldiers would guard health
workers in regions where they are routinely attacked by Islamist
militants, said Shaukat Yousafzai, information minister of the
north-western province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Showbiz and sports stars joined the government to rally parents'
support for the drive, since the World Health Organisation (WHO)
warned Pakistan that polio might become a epidemic again.
Pakistan reported 144 new cases last year, the highest number in half
a decade, which prompted the WHO to warn that the progress made over
the years to control polio had halted.
A health worker gives a polio vaccine to a child at a school in Lahore. Pakistan's government launched an anti-polio vaccination campaign in an effort to eradicate the crippling disease affected children. Picture: K.M. Chaudary/AP
The polio cases peaked in Pakistan at 306 in 2014, the year when the
offensives against the Taliban began, according to official
statistics.
A police officer stands guard while a health worker gives a polio vaccine to a child in Karachi. Picture: K.M. Chaudary/AP
The Islamist militants opposed the vaccination campaign, calling it a
conspiracy by the West to sterilize Muslim children, and killed
dozens of health workers and police guarding it.
A health worker gives a polio vaccine to a child at a bus terminal in Lahore. Picture: K.M. Chaudary/AP
But the country managed to bring the number down to just eight cases
of polio in 2017 through vaccinations funded by the WHO.
A health worker gives a polio vaccine to a child at a school in Lahore. Picture: K.M. Chaudary/AP
Pakistan is among only a handful of countries in the world where
polio - an infectious disease caused by a virus that can cause
paralysis - is still prevalent.