A six-day polio eradication campaign has started in Karachi on Monday during which more than 2.2 million children will be administered anti-polio drops in 188 union councils.
Some 9,000 polio workers will take part in the campaign, reported Radio Pakistan.
Karachi Commissioner Ejaz Ahmad Khan has urged the members of Task Force for Elimination of Polio to handle the challenges on a priority basis and to take on board all relevant stakeholders.
Pakistan is one of just three countries in the world, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria that have endemic polio, a once-common childhood virus that can cause paralysis or death.
However, immunisation efforts have in the past been hampered by militants.
Earlier this month, a polio team was fired upon by unidentified assailants in Quetta’s Shalkot area, leading to the death of two female polio workers. The community health worker, who was killed, was identified as Sakeena. She was accompanied by her daughter, who also died in the attack.
Polio team fired on in Quetta, two female workers killed
“The killings are very, very sad, but they will not have any impact on the eradication campaign because the federal government and all the international partners are fully committed to eradicating polio from Pakistan. We will not be brought down by this,” The Washington Post quoted Pakistan Polio Plus Committee Chairperson Aziz Memon as saying in its report.
Militants in Pakistan have repeatedly alleged that the immunisation campaigns are a cover for Western spies.
