QUETTA: Amid tight security, a week-long special polio campaign will begin in seven districts of Balochistan from Monday (today), announced Rashid Razzaq, Coordinator Emergency Operation Centre Balochistan, on Sunday.

The schedule is as follows: in Quetta and Pishin it begins from Aug 26 (today), in Naseerabad, Jaffarabad, Jhal Magsi, Sohbat Pur from Aug 28 and in Qila Abdullah it will formally begin on Sept 2.

The special anti-polio campaign is being launched after recent reported cases of polio in Quetta, Nasirabad and Qila Abdullah, said Mr Razzaq.

Two cases have been reported from Qila Abdullah, one each from Quetta and Jaffarabad.

More than one million children under the age of five would be given polio drops. Around 4,460 polio worker teams were to be deputed with 265 fixed side and 383 transit teams, Mr Razzaq said.

He requested parents not to heed to false and negative propaganda against the anti-polio vaccination campaign.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio virus continues to persist.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2019