ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The UNICEF Pakistan has maintained that Pakistan will soon get rid of polio, a highly infectious viral disease which mainly affects young children.
“Pakistan has never been so close to polio eradication as it is now,” the UNICEF Pakistan said in a tweet on Thursday.
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency said that the fight against polio is largely indebted to thousands of selfless frontline workers who work in tough weather and difficult terrains.
“Thank you for all your contributions to end polio,” it tweeted.
Pakistan has never been so close to polio eradication as it is now.The fight against polio is largely indebted to thousands of selfless frontline workers who work in tough weather and difficult terrains. Thank you for all your contributions to #endpolio. #PolioSePakPakistan pic.twitter.com/cxmrk9ibzs
— UNICEF Pakistan (@UNICEF_Pakistan) December 27, 2018
Pakistan remains as one of three remaining polio-endemic Countries in the world along with Afghanistan and Nigeria.
However, since the launch of the Pakistan’s Polio Eradication Programme in 1994, there has been a massive decline in polio cases in Pakistan from approximately 20,000 every year in the early 1990s to only eight cases in 2017.
Earlier this month, over 38 million children under the age of five years were vaccinated anti polio drops during another countrywide anti-polio campaign.
As the anti-polio drive went underway, Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry urged the nation to step forward and take responsibility to make Pakistan a polio-free Country.
As the nationwide campaign against polio begins across Pakistan, I call on the nation to step forward, take responsibility and make Pakistan #polio-free. #PakFightsPolio
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) December 10, 2018
We’ve acheived 97% percent reduction in polio cases. But we’re not there yet. I urge parents to vaccinate their children to end polio once and for all. #PakFightsPolio
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) December 10, 2018
