The Senate was told on Friday that Sindh, Northern Areas and Fata had became virtual nurseries of polio posing a serious threat to the country.

Holding local governments responsible for the failure of polio eradication programme, Minis-ter for Health Sherry Rehman said during the question hour that vaccines became ineffective because immunisation teams did not keep them at the required temperature.

She said that lack of checks along the border with Afghanistan also contributed to a dramatic increase in polio cases.