KARACHI, March 2: A special polio eradication campaign was launched on the 1st of March by the World Health Organisation in collaboration with the health department of the city government Karachi.

During the year 2001 only five cases of polio were reported in Karachi from District Malir (now defunct), while no new case has been reported in Karachi in the last couple of months.

In the Gadap Town area where five positive cases of polio were discovered last year. EDO health, Ali Nawaz Shaikh, informed that contrary to the earlier apprehensions that wild polio virus still persists among the local Baloch and sindhi tribes, all of those cases had been traced down to Afghan settlers in the area.

To eliminate polio from Karachi, special measures have been taken to eradicate polio from Afghan camps. — PPI