ISLAMABAD
\nAn anti-polio vaccination campaign to immunize more than 21 million children under the age of five will kick off in Sindh and Punjab on March 13. The five-day vaccination campaign is being held in two phases due to the concurring activities of the seventh national census. In the first phase, over 17.41 million children under the age of five in 13 districts of Punjab and 16 districts of Sindh and Islamabad will be vaccinated from March 13 to March 17.
\nThe second phase will be held from April 3 to 7 during the second week of Ramadan to vaccinate children in 12 districts of Balochistan and 26 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including the seven endemic districts in the southern region of the province.
\nFederal Minister for Health Abdul Qadir Patel urged parents and caregivers to ensure that their children receive the life-saving polio vaccine so that they remain protected from poliovirus, which has been found circulating in environmental samples.
\n\u201cThe presence of wild polio in the environment shows that the virus is circulating in our communities and posing a serious risk to our children,\u201d said Abdul Qadir Patel.
\n\u201cWith Ramadan and Eid around the corner, population movements can increase the risk of further spread, therefore, it is critical that parents and caregivers vaccinate their children in this and every campaign,\u201d said the Minister.
\n\u201cWe have specifically designed this March campaign to reach areas where population movement is not just frequent but also expected during Ramadan and Eid festival,\u201d said Dr Shahzad Baig, National Emergency Operations Center.
\n\u201cIt is essential that we reach as many children as possible with the vaccine now to curb polio transmission,\u201d he added. No human case has been reported in Pakistan since September 2022 when a polio outbreak paralyzed 20 children \u2013 all of them in southern KP districts.
\nWild poliovirus was detected for the first time this year in sewage samples collected from two separate sites in Lahore in January. Two more samples have since then tested positive for polio \u2013 wild polio has been detected in a sample collected from D.I.Khan and variant poliovirus has been detected from Ghotki.
\nThe polio program has taken all efforts to ensure the vaccination of children to keep them safe from this highly infectious disease in the context of positive environmental samples detected in some places.
\nThe Sehat Tahhafuz Helpline 1166 and 24\/7 WhatsApp Helpline 0346-777-65-46 will be available to assist parents and caregivers in reporting missed children and providing related information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD An anti-polio vaccination campaign to immunize more than 21 million children under the age of five will kick off in Sindh and Punjab on March 13. The five-day vaccination campaign is being held in two phases due to the concurring activities of the seventh national census. In the first phase, over 17.41 million children […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[166],"class_list":{"0":"post-319084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national","8":"tag-polio"},"yoast_head":"\n