Three-day anti-Polio campaign has commenced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday.

According to the details, Minster for Health Taimur Saleem Jhagra inaugurated the campaign.

While speaking at the inaugural ceremony in Peshawar, the Minster for Health said the government is committed to eradicate the polio disease.

During the campaign, more than six million children under the age of five years will be vaccinated in the province.

According to the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme website, 144 cases of wild polio virus (WPV) reported in Pakistan in 2019. In comparison, only 12 and eight cases had emerged in 2018 and 2017, respectively.

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Meanwhile, seven cases of WPV reported across the country so far in 2020.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last remaining countries that have been unable to eradicate polio.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a lack of infrastructure, remote locations, population movement, conflict and insecurity, and resistance to vaccination are some of the reasons why polio is still endemic in the two countries .

Pakistan under a polio-linked travel restriction imposed by the WHO due to which, since 2014, every person travelling abroad has to carry a vaccination certificate.

Polio is a disease that affects the nervous system, causing paralysis and even death.