A three-day polio immunisation campaign will begin in twelve districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two tribal agencies today.
According to officials, 3.2 million children up to five years of age will be administered anti-polio drops in Peshawar, Haripur, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Batagram, Kohistan, Torghar, Shangla, Swat, and Lower Dir, Chitral, Khyber and South Waziristan agencies.
A six-day special anti-polio campaign in nine union councils of Khairpur District is also expected to start from today. A total of 18,000 children are expected to be vaccinated against polio in the district.
Special security measures are also being taken to ensure security of polio teams.
Earlier this month, the first polio case of 2017 was reported in Balochistan.
The provincial health department stated that an 18-month-child was confirmed with the polio virus in the Chaman area of Qilla Abdullah since her patents had refused to administer polio drops.
In January, this year, a rare strain of the virus was found in sewage samples in Quetta following which the provincial government started an anti-polio campaign in the province.
Pakistan is one of the few counties in the world that has the once-common childhood virus which can result in paralysis or death.
It has been reported that last year, Pakistan witnessed a record low of 19 polio cases with only one of them in Balochistan.
In the past, violence has been perpetrated against polio workers who are either shot or killed for their work.
