Pakistan Unable To Eradicate Polio Even In 2018:\u00a0Pakistan has not been successful even in 2018 to achieve the target of a polio-free country despite conducting a full-fledged anti-polio campaign for the last five months.<\/p>\n
20 cases were reported in 2016, 8 cases in 2017 and till date in 2018 3 cases have been reported. All the 3 cases have emerged from Dukki district of Balochistan.<\/p>\n
In April, the government launched a nationwide polio vaccination drive to reach 38.7 million children to eradicate the paralyzing and potentially deadly virus. Reported cases have steadily declined since 2014 when 306 were reported.<\/p>\n
Efforts to eradicate the disease have been undermined by opposition from the Taliban and other militants, who term immunization a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or provide cover for Western spies.<\/p>\n
In January, gunmen killed a vaccination team, comprising a mother and her daughter, working in Balochistan. Three years earlier, 15 people were killed in a bombing by the Pakistani Taliban outside a polio vaccination centre in Balochistan.<\/p>\n