ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan on Monday began its last nationwide vaccination campaign for the year to protect 45 million children from polio after a surge in new cases hampered efforts to stop the disease, officials said.
According to the World Health Organization, Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan remain the only two countries where the potentially fatal, paralyzing virus hasn’t been stopped,
Pakistan has reported 63 confirmed cases since January.
Ayesha Raza Farooq, the prime minister’s adviser for the polio eradication program, said the anti-polio drive will continue until Dec. 22.
“As a mother, I am appealing to you to open your doors for health workers," she said.
Pakistan regularly launches such campaigns despite violence affecting medical personnel who oversee the vaccinations and security forces escorting them. Militants falsely claim that vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Authorities deployed thousands of police officers to protect health workers following intelligence reports that insurgents could target them. However, gunmen opened fire Monday on police escorting polio workers in Karak, a city in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing a police officer and wounding a health worker, local police official Ayaz Khan said.
Also on Monday, a gunman riding on a motorcycle shot and wounded a police officer assigned to escort polio workers from a health facility in the northwestern city of Bannu, said local police chief Hamid Khan.
No one has claimed responsibility for the twin attacks. But more than 200 polio workers and police assigned for their protection have been killed since the 1990s, according to health officials and authorities.
The latest anti-polio drive campaign began a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met with medical staff and vowed that Pakistan would win the war against polio.
Afghanistan reported at least 23 confirmed cases in 2024, according to data from the World Health Organization.
In September, the Afghan Taliban suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign in Afghanistan, a devastating setback for polio eradication as the virus is one of the world’s most infectious and any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress.
Associated Press writer Riaz Khan contributed to this story from Peshawar, Pakistan.
A health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child at a health center in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)
A health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child at a health center in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)
A health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child at a health center in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)
A police officer stands guard as a health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 16, 2024--
Energy services provider Expro (NYSE: XPRO) has been awarded a contract valued at over $10 million for the provision of a well decommissioning solution. The solution combines subsea safety systems and surface processing design to enable both safe entry to the well and effective management of well fluids.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241216642229/en/
From its global support hub in Aberdeen, Expro will provide a surface fluid management package and its market-leading 7-3/8” large-bore subsea test tree assembly (SSTTA) with surface tree and controls, providing dual barrier and disconnect capability to facilitate re-entry into the subsea wells.
Expro has supplied subsea safety systems and well test equipment to this client for almost 15 years and was involved in the construction of many of the 52 wells now being plugged and abandoned (P&A’d). This demonstrates Expro’s ability to provide technical solutions across the entire well lifecycle.
With an unrivalled portfolio of standard and bespoke subsea solutions, Expro offers subsea well access systems that interface with any Christmas tree type and can operate in open water or within a drilling riser with blow-out preventer. Expro’s surface well test systems equally provide industry-leading solutions that can be configured to specific well conditions and customer requirements.
Iain Farley, Expro’s Regional Vice President for Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa said: “Having been involved in the development phase for many of these fields, we have gained a life of well experience that will be invaluable for this P&A campaign. Our expertise and know how will help deliver key technical and commercial benefits for the client across the project.
“The contract reinforces our reputation as the leading provider of subsea safety systems and surface well test equipment, including within the P&A sector. It demonstrates our commitment to delivering best-in-class equipment, allied with the highest standards of safety and service quality that Expro is renowned for.”
Notes to Editors:
Expro
Working for clients across the well life cycle, Expro is a leading provider of energy services, offering cost-effective, innovative solutions and what the Company considers to be best-in-class safety and service quality. The Company’s extensive portfolio of capabilities spans well construction, well flow management, subsea well access, and well intervention and integrity solutions.
With roots dating to 1938, Expro has approximately 8,500 employees and provides services and solutions to leading exploration and production companies in both onshore and offshore environments in approximately 60 countries.
For more information, please visit and connect with Expro on Twitter @ExproGroup and LinkedIn @Expro.
SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release, and oral statements made from time to time by representatives of the Company, may contain certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding, among other things, the Company’s delivery of safe, reliable and environmentally secure subsea well access, the Company’s environmental, social and governance goals, targets and initiatives, and future growth, and are indicated by words or phrases such as "anticipate," "outlook," "estimate," "expect," "project," "believe," "envision," "goal," "target," "can," "will," and similar words or phrases. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the future results, performance or achievements expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based largely on the Company's expectations and judgments and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, many of which are unforeseeable and beyond our control. The factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to materially differ include, among others the risk factors identified in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8-K reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, historical practice, or otherwise.
SSTTA String (Photo: Business Wire)
