Islamabad, November 29 (BNA): Pakistani authorities launched a new nationwide polio campaign Monday amid a surge in new cases among children, health officials said.
This is the sixth campaign of its kind this year and will last for five days, and aims to vaccinate children under the age of five in high-risk areas.
The new campaign targeted Islamabad and high-risk areas in eastern Punjab and southwestern Baluchistan province.
The Associated Press reported that a similar campaign would be launched in the northwest in the first week of December.
Pakistan regularly campaigns against polio, despite attacks on workers and police carrying out vaccination campaigns.
Since April, Pakistan has recorded 20 new cases of polio, and the outbreak was seen as a blow to efforts to eradicate the disease, which can cause severe paralysis in children.
Pakistan came close to eradicating polio last year, when only one case was reported.
Since then, the new cases have been reported in the northwest, forcing the government to launch polio campaigns at short intervals in high-risk areas across the country.
The last such campaign was launched earlier this month.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation also supports polio campaigns in Pakistan, which last month pledged $1.2 billion for efforts to eradicate polio worldwide.
The money will be used for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative strategy through 2026.
The foundation said last month that the initiative aims to eradicate the polio virus in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the last two affected countries.
MI