Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the poliovirus was spreading in the country from Afghanistan and that special arrangements were 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,” Dawn news quoted Khan as saying at a meeting with a delegation of Rotary International on Wednesday.
According to the Prime Minister Office (PMO), Khan said that Pakistan’s biggest priority was to eradicate polio as the government was taking all steps in its fight against the ailment.
Khan said that the government would put to use all possible resources to get rid of the disease and measures were being taken to check cross-border (Pakistan and Afghanistan) movement of people.
So far this year, eight cases have been detected, including three in Sindh and one in Balochistan, across the country.
In all, 144 cases were reported last year, 12 in 2018, and eight in 2017.
Pakistan, which is one of the two countries (Afghanistan and Nigeria) in the world where polio cases are still being reported, remains under a polio-linked travel restriction recommended by the World Health Organization since 2014 due to which every person travelling abroad has to carry a polio vaccination certificate.
