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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has formally kicked off its first anti-polio drive of 2025 today, Monday, to vaccinate over 45 million children under the age of five, the health ministry said as the country hopes to stem the spread of the disease. 

The Pakistan polio program conducts multiple mass vaccination drives in a year, and this year’s first anti-polio vaccination campaign is expected to continue till Feb. 9. Pakistan has assembled teams of around 400,000 polio workers to go door-to-door countrywide to vaccinate children below five years of age, Coordinator for Health Dr. Mukhtar Bharath said. 

Polio is a paralyzing disease that has no cure. Multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five are essential to provide children high immunity against the disease.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched Pakistan’s first anti-polio drive of 2025 during an event in Islamabad on Sunday, administering polio drops to children during the ceremony. 

“During the polio campaign, more than 45 million children across the country will be administered polio drops,” the Ministry of Health’s spokesperson said. 

Dr. Bharath called on parents to support polio vaccinators and ensure their children received the vaccines. 

“It is the national and moral responsibility of parents to vaccinate all children under the age of five,” he said. 

Pakistan has reported only one polio case this year. However, last year the South Asian country reported 73 cases with Balochistan province reporting 27, the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh reporting 22 case each, and Pakistan’s capital city and eastern Punjab province each reporting one case of the disease throughout the year. 

Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two countries where the disease is endemic. 

Immunization campaigns have succeeded in most countries and have come close in Pakistan, but persistent problems remain. In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021.

Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies.

Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams.
 

NEW YORK: Luka Doncic released an emotional farewell to Dallas on Sunday, the same day a trade sending him from the Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers in a swap for fellow All-NBA player Anthony Davis was finalized.

Doncic said in a letter to the city that he “wanted so badly to bring you a championship” and that he thought he’d spend his career in Dallas.

“For a young kid from Slovenia coming to the US for the first time, you made North Texas fell like home,” Doncic wrote. “In good times and bad, from injuries to the NBA Finals, your support never changed. Thank you not only for sharing my joy in our best moments, but also for lifting me up when I needed it most.”

Doncic was enormously popular in Dallas — and everywhere else. His No. 77 Mavericks jersey ranked eighth among best-sellers through NBAStore.com over the first half of the season. On Sunday night, some Doncic items remained for sale on the Mavs’ shopping site.

His jersey sales will likely skyrocket again now, when the Lakers make his new ones available.

“Grateful for this amazing opportunity,” Doncic wrote in another social media post, linking it to one from the Lakers’ accounts welcoming him to Los Angeles. “Basketball means everything to me, and no matter where I play the game, I’ll do so with the same joy, passion and goal — to win championships.”

Doncic had built deep ties to Dallas off the floor, including through many charitable organizations. He had given large sums of money to various entities in North Texas and arranged for Jordan Brand sneakers — he represents the brand — to be given to frontline workers in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The appreciation was mutual. When Doncic led Slovenia to a berth into the Tokyo Olympics that were held in 2021, Dallas County Commissioners declared July 6 of that year as “Luka Doncic Day” in celebration of both his on- and off-court accomplishments.

In only 422 games, he ranks sixth on Dallas’ all-time scoring list, is second in 3-pointers in Mavs history behind only Dirk Nowitzki, is third on the club list in rebounds and fifth in assists.

“To all the organizations I’ve worked with throughout the Dallas community, thank you for letting me contribute to your important work and join you in bringing light to those who need it,” Doncic wrote. “As I start the next part of my basketball journey, I am leaving a city that will always feel like a home away from home. Dallas is a special place, and Mavs fans are special fans.”