PESHAWAR: An estimated five lakh children missed polio vaccination during the anti-polio drive at the start of this month.
According to data compiled by officials of Emergency Operation Centre (Polio) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, during the six-day campaign carried out from February 3 to Feb 8 vaccinators covered 5.97 million of the total targets of 6.47 million under-five children, which is 92 per cent.
The health authorities said that 97,743 children remained unvaccinated in the six-day anti-polio drive.
A large number of polio also refused to vaccinate their children. The data shows that 19,070 children remained unvaccinated as their parents were reluctant to vaccinate their children against polio.
Pakistan had reported 74 cases of polio in 2024. Out of these, 27 were reported from Balochistan, 22 from KP, 23 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
Last year was one of Pakistan’s worst years for the ongoing battle against polio in recent times as the reported cases were more than 2.6 times higher when compared to cases reported during the past three years( 2023, 22, and 2021).
It is a major setback for a country that had reported only a single case in 2021 in total, following a period of more than 15 months without any documented cases.
