ISLAMABAD: Three day anti-polio campaign will begin in the country from February 15 to administer polio drops to millions of children up to five years of age.
According to official sources, thousands of teams have been formed for the drive against the crippling disease, which the officials hope to eliminate this year.
According to a Unicef health official, there was 85 percent reduction in recorded polio cases in 2015 and with this kind of progress Pakistan can be declared a non-epidemic country for polio virus this year.
The year 2014 was a difficult year for health authorities as Pakistan recorded 305 cases of polio, as the campaign met resistance from militants who attacked immunisation teams and polio workers were stopped from administering drops in some areas.
An official of Polio Emergency Operation Center (EOC) FATA told media recently that in 2015, only 16,000 children were missed in the country which is highly commendable when data is compared with figures in 2014.
Around 292,000 children from Khyber Agency, North Waziristan and South Waziristan Agencies missed immunisation in 2014 due to inaccessibility to these area.
For the health officials, the campaign has remained a challenge as they have to convince parents, who are sometimes reluctant because of their conservative views.
The health workers will visit every nook and corner of cities and far off places in rural areas in an effort to make the campaign successful.
A district health official in Rawalpindi Dr Arshad Ali Sabir told APP that special attention would be focused on ensuring coverage of children during the latest campaign.
Special counters would be established at public parks, railway stations, bus and wagon stands, airports and transit points to administer anti-polio drops to children to ensure that no one is left without the vaccine.
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