ISLAMABAD, Jul 26 (APP): The environmental samples collected from Peshawar district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province tested positive for wild poliovirus.
According to the Ministry of National Health Services, on receiving the report, Federal Minister for National Health Services, Regulations & Coordination, Abdul Qadir Patel said that the poliovirus on any side of the border was a threat to children everywhere.
He said that parents must continue to ensure that their children under five received the anti-polio drops in all campaigns.
“The Pakistan Polio Programme is maintaining a robust surveillance system, which is evident from the prompt detections of the virus in sewage samples recently,” he said.
He said, “We will continue to hunt and eliminate the virus wherever we find it.”
He said that the polio was a highly infectious and incurable disease caused by poliovirus, which mainly affected children under the age of five.
The virus invaded the nervous system and caused paralysis or even death in some cases, he added.
The minister said that vaccination drives were the most effective way to protect children.
He said that Pakistan’s anti polio program was in touch with Afghanistan’s polio eradication program.
The minister said that the government would start polio immunization drive in 61 districts from August 1 to immunize over 7.7 million children.