ISLAMABAD, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan on Friday reported the first case of polio virus in 2023 in the country's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the health ministry confirmed.
The virus was found in 20 children in Pakistan last year and all of them were from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a spokesperson for the ministry said.
Talking to Xinhua, Almeena Iftikhar, a health worker from the province, said there is strong resistance against the polio vaccine in some areas of the province.
A door-to-door vaccination campaign to administer the polio vaccine is currently underway in the country, where health workers are administering the vaccine to kids under five years.
According to the health ministry, the campaign is being held in two phases, and the first phase sees over 17.41 million children under the age of five be vaccinated from March 13 to March 17.
In the second phase, over 4.12 million more children will be vaccinated from April 3 to April 7, the health ministry said in a statement. ■