ISLAMABAD, May 7: Some 16 million children living in the remote areas of Pakistan along the Afghan border will be vaccinated for polio this week.

Tens of thousands of health workers will carry out the World Health Organisation’s most demanding immunisation programme. WHO hopes that the programme will lead to total eradication of polio in Pakistan and Afghanistan, BBC reported.

The week-long campaign will target 14 million Pakistani and two million Afghan children, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said.

“The virus is still circulating in this corridor, so it’s important to target the children who live on the border between the two countries,” she said.

This year alone, five cases had been reported in Afghanistan, the WHO official said. Another official of WHO, Oliver Rosenbauer, told the BBC that geographically it is very difficult area where the teams would operat.

“It is extremely challenging to run immunisation campaigns in these areas,” he added.

WHO launched a worldwide campaign in 1988 to eradicate the virus from the world but has so far failed in its efforts.

The programme suffered a setback two years ago when northern Nigeria suspended immunisation and the virus spread in this once a polio-free country.

Now the WHO believes the campaign is back on track, and the target of global eradication is within reach.—APP