KARACHI: In yet another move to eradicate menace of polio virus, a fresh six day long anti-polio vaccination drive has started on Monday in 17 districts of Sindh.
According to Emergency Operation Centre for Polio (EOC) Sindh, Oral poliovirus vaccines (OPV) drive would continue till March 11 and will cover districts including Karachi, Badin, Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Sujawal, Tando Mohammad Khan, Umerkot, Thatta, Tharparkar and Tando Allahyar.
During the campaign, 4.65 million children would be administered polio vaccine throughout the province.
According to World Health Organization, poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease, which mainly affects young children. The virus is transmitted by person-to-person spread mainly through the faecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common carrier including contaminated water or food and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and can cause paralysis.
Polio (poliomyelitis) mainly affects children under 5 years of age. There is no cure for polio, it can only be prevented. Polio vaccine, given multiple times, can protect a child for life.
To date 3 polio cases worldwide have been reported in year 2017. Out of those 2 are from Afghanistan. The sole case reported from Pakistan is from Punjab.
37 cases were reported in 2016 globally, out of which 20 in Pakistan, 13 in Afghanistan and 4 were reported in Nigeria.