Thaindian News

Islamabad, May 15 (IANS) With 37 polio cases reported so far this year in Pakistan, Unicef and the World Health Organisation (WHO) are a worried lot. The two institutions have stepped up efforts to determine how the disease could finally be eradicated.

Unicef and WHO are working closely with Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments with the common aim of vaccinating every child in the country against polio in a bid to eradicate the highly contagious virus forever by 2012, Unicef said.

The 37 cases reported so far this year is far greater compared to 18 in the same period last year, Xinhua reported.

WHO’s Pakistan representative Guido Sabatinelli and Unicef’s Pakistan representative Dan Rohrmann visited several high risk areas in the port city of Karachi to witness the National Polio Immunization, a bid to vaccinate a targeted 33 million children with two drops of polio vaccine.

Sabatinelli said there were a number of reasons for Pakistan’s high rate of polio cases.

“Getting access to communities in some parts of the country is a real issue, while educating families about the vital importance of immunizing their children is an on-going task. Children growing up in poor communities are more likely to suffer poor health and malnutrition, both of which can contribute to the need for more doses of polio vaccine to achieve immunity,” he said.