ISLAMABAD, Oct 11: Minister for Health Sherry Rehman said on Saturday that people’s commitment to the national immunisation campaign was critical for eradication of polio.

“All of us have to play our role to turn the dream of a polio-free Pakistan into reality,” she said after administering polio drops to children at Pims, two days before the launch of the national polio immunisation campaign from October 13 to 15.

“We need public support in our objective of a polio-free Pakistan. This is a joint effort and all of us have an obligation to protect the future of our children,” she said.

“We need the public to understand and respond to significance of campaign which is tied to the future of our children and nobody can afford to take that lightly,” Ms Rehman told journalists.

Referring to reports of fresh polio cases, the minister said the government usually responded to such cases through ‘mopping’, a strategy that entailed immediate vaccination of 100,000 to 200,000 children from the area of the reported polio case.