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Lahore, Mar. 22 (ANI): Pakistan will face risk of travel sanctions after June 2013 if the polio virus is not eradicated from the country, according to the Director General of the Health Department.

DG Nisar Cheema, who was addressing a gathering at a media workshop arranged by the Department of Health, said Pakistan would need media support to spread awareness about the vaccination, reports the Daily Times.

Polio cases in Pakistan have risen sharply in recent years, hitting 198 in 2011, the highest figure for more than a decade and the most of any country in the world, according to the World Health Organisation.

Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio remains endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria.

UN agencies suspended work on a nationwide campaign to inoculate children against the highly infectious disease after nine health workers were murdered in a string of attacks in the northwest and Karachi in December last year. (ANI)