ISLAMABAD: Pakistan launched a marketing campaign on Monday to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children in opposition to polio, as new coronavirus circumstances decline within the nation, officers mentioned.
The five-day marketing campaign will goal greater than 30 million kids underneath the age of 5, studies dpa information company.
Round 223,000 frontline employees will unfold out throughout 124 of the nation’s 154 districts to manage the oral drops, following Covid-19 security protocols.
Based on official statistics, just one case of polio has been reported up to now this 12 months.
“Again-to-back anti-polio drives through the Covid-19 lockdown that helped us attain most kids in high-risk areas and improved safety are behind decline in new circumstances,” a Well being Ministry official instructed dpa.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are amongst only some international locations on this planet the place polio continues to be endemic.
The nation got here very near eliminating polio, however recorded 147 circumstances, a five-year excessive, in 2019, amid vaccine boycotts and assaults on well being employees.
Pakistan began a polio programme in 1994, however the work of the well being employees was repeatedly hampered by violent incidents by extremists.
The UN-funded drive to vaccinate kids underneath the age of 5 additionally faces opposition from spiritual conservatives, who imagine the vaccine, administered in a number of rounds, is meant to make Muslim kids sterile.
The polio vaccination drive began because the nation witnesses a decline in every day new infections of coronavirus and academic establishments reopen.
The ratio of coronavirus exams returning optimistic has dropped beneath four per cent this week from greater than 10 per cent throughout most of April-Might interval.
A complete of 922,824 folks have been contaminated in Pakistan with 21,323 deaths up to now, in keeping with the nationwide statistics.
The five-day marketing campaign will goal greater than 30 million kids underneath the age of 5, studies dpa information company.
Round 223,000 frontline employees will unfold out throughout 124 of the nation’s 154 districts to manage the oral drops, following Covid-19 security protocols.
Based on official statistics, just one case of polio has been reported up to now this 12 months.
“Again-to-back anti-polio drives through the Covid-19 lockdown that helped us attain most kids in high-risk areas and improved safety are behind decline in new circumstances,” a Well being Ministry official instructed dpa.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are amongst only some international locations on this planet the place polio continues to be endemic.
The nation got here very near eliminating polio, however recorded 147 circumstances, a five-year excessive, in 2019, amid vaccine boycotts and assaults on well being employees.
Pakistan began a polio programme in 1994, however the work of the well being employees was repeatedly hampered by violent incidents by extremists.
The UN-funded drive to vaccinate kids underneath the age of 5 additionally faces opposition from spiritual conservatives, who imagine the vaccine, administered in a number of rounds, is meant to make Muslim kids sterile.
The polio vaccination drive began because the nation witnesses a decline in every day new infections of coronavirus and academic establishments reopen.
The ratio of coronavirus exams returning optimistic has dropped beneath four per cent this week from greater than 10 per cent throughout most of April-Might interval.
A complete of 922,824 folks have been contaminated in Pakistan with 21,323 deaths up to now, in keeping with the nationwide statistics.