Pak PM Shehbaz Sharif launches year’s first anti-polio drive to eradicate crippling disease

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday formally launched the first anti-polio drive of the year as the country struggles to eradicate the crippling disease.

A ceremony was held in Islamabad where he administered polio drops to children to unveil the campaign. Polio workers would administer polio drops during the seven-day drive from February 3 to 9.

Addressing the launch, the prime minister expressed his determination to eradicate polio from Pakistan, saying that millions of children would be vaccinated across the length and breadth of the country during the campaign.

Sharif hoped that the dedicated teams would work “day and night to eradicate the disease, and would reach the far-flung areas and villages”, adding these teams would successfully meet the huge responsibility by “utilising their complete energies”.

He said Islamabad, through international partners, also has close coordination with Kabul and hopefully poliovirus would be eliminated from neighbouring Afghanistan through mutual support.

The prime minister appreciated and thanked international partners, including WHO, UNICEF, and Saudi Arabia for their generous support in fighting fatal diseases.

He said that unfortunately a total of 77 polio cases were reported last year in Pakistan.

Talking about the first polio case of the year, which was reported last month, the premier expressed resolve to eradicate the virus at all costs.

The prime minister focal person on polio eradication, Ayesha Raza Farooq, said over 400,000 polio workers, including 225,000 women vaccinators, would go door to door to vaccinate children below five years of age.

She appealed to parents to open the doors of their houses when polio workers come to vaccinate their children to protect them from polio and other deadly diseases.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio remains endemic. The main challenge for Pakistan is to convince reluctant parents, who influenced by the propaganda of extremists, refuse to allow vaccination.

Extremists regularly attack polio workers as they allege that the vaccine was a conspiracy to sterile Muslims.