Pakistan began a special five-day polio immunization campaign in the southwestern city of Quetta on Monday for children under 5 after a rare strain of the virus was found in sewage samples, officials said.
Local officials said they had recruited Muslim clerics to promote the immunizations for 400,000 children after past programs were met with resistance and even violence by extremists.
"The religious leaders were ... asking the people to give their children anti-polio drops in their sermons in the mosques in rural areas of Baluchistan," said Syed Faisal Ahmed, coordinator of the local Emergency Operation Centre.