The polio eradication campaign will begin from today in all seven districts of Karachi, in which 2.585 million children will be vaccinated against polio.

More than 11000 polio workers will perform their duties to achieve the target of vaccination of children under 5 years of age.

The meeting chaired by Commissioner Karachi Muhammad Saleem Rajput reviewed the arrangements for the campaign and decided to provide full security to the teams.

It was informed at the meeting that two polio cases were reported from Karachi in October, becoming the first cases outside of the endemic region since January 2021.

The first child is a 24-month-old, who had an onset of weakness in his limbs on October 3, while the second child is a 31-month-old who had an onset of weakness on October 15.

Both cases were reported from the same UC Gujro of Karachi East from a high-risk population. Virus isolated from both children belongs to the YB3A cluster, which has been detected in most of the positive environmental samples isolated from different parts of Karachi recently.

It was also informed at the meeting that since the diagnosis of these two cases, this is the second vaccination campaign being conducted.