Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that polio virus is spreading in the country from Afghanistan and that special arrangements are being made to monitor cross-border movement of people from the neighbouring country.
“Special arrangements are being made to monitor cross-border movement of people from Afghanistan and that will help prevent spread of poliovirus,” the prime minister was quoted as saying at a meeting with a delegation of Rotary International on Wednesday. According to the Prime Minister Office (PMO), Mr Khan said that Pakistan’s biggest priority was to eradicate polio from the country as the government was taking all steps in its fight against the ailment. Why has Pakistan been unable to eradicate Polio? Polio is a major health problem and a deadly infectious disease in the developing countries. Pakistan is considered as the exporter of Wild Polio Virus (WPV) with highest number of virus outbreaks among endemic countries. The misconception of people about polio vaccine, insecurity within the country and poor health system are the reasons of failure of polio eradication campaigns in these regions.