Daily Times

Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated the national anti-polio drive of winter months in Islamabad Friday by administering anti-polio drops to small children.

Addressing the ceremony, he said 40 million children under five years of age will be administered anti-polio drops by 260,000 polio staff during the campaign.

Addressing the launching ceremony of the nation-wide ‘Polio Eradication Campaign’ in Islamabad, the prime minister asked parents to come forward to get their kids vaccinated against the crippling disease. “To the mothers who are watching this, I request you to go to the health workers and get your children vaccinated yourself if they haven’t been administered with polio drops,” he said.

According to the WHO, only three countries – Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria – have never stopped transmission of polio. Khan said that around four million children under the age of five would be vaccinated in the ongoing campaign.

The prime minister Khan lauded polio workers for going across the country to provide anti-polio drops to children despite facing threats from terrorists.

Notably, Attempts to eradicate the crippling disease have been seriously hampered by deadly targeting of vaccination teams in recent years by militants, who oppose the drives, claiming the polio drops cause infertility.