Pakistan resumes polio campaign after virus pause

Pakistan resumed its polio vaccination campaign yesterday after a four-month pause due to the coronavirus outbreak, which health authorities feared would cause a surge in cases of the crippling disease.

The country is one of only two in the world where polio is still a serious problem.

Vaccination teams in the southern port city of Karachi went door to door, flanked by armed police, administering polio drops into children's mouths without touching them, in line with new coronavirus safety guidelines.

"Right now we can't say what impact the four-month suspension will have on our fight against polio, but one thing is sure -- that the current year is going to be worse than the previous years in regard to the number of new cases," Zulfiqar Babakhel, a spokesman for the country's vaccination authority, told AFP.

As well as the pause to the campaign, a further 2.8 million newborns also missed out on polio vaccinations, he said.

Muhammad Nadeem, a 63-year-old shopkeeper from Karachi, said his family had been waiting anxiously for their two-year-old son to be vaccinated against the highly infectious disease.

"It is a matter of our son's future, and today we are finally feeling relieved after four months of fear and impatience," he said.