PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s polio programme has launched an anti-polio drive in the country in an effort to inoculate 44 million children under the age of 5.
The seven-day drive in 143 districts of the country began just days after authorities said the number of new polio cases reported in Pakistan this year had touched 63, over 10 times higher than the last year.
“A large-scale polio vaccination campaign is being held in the country from December 16 to December 22 during which vaccinators will go house to house to immunize more than 44 million children under five in 143 districts against polio,” the Pakistan polio programme said in a statement.
Officials said teams of frontline workers have been constituted to who are going door-to-door to administer vaccine drops to children of the province.
Anti-polio vaccine drive in KP
The five-day drive in 36 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa began just days after authorities said the number of new polio cases reported in Pakistan this year had touched 63, over 10 times higher than the last year.
Officials said 42161 health teams would been constituted to who are going door-to-door to administer vaccine drops to children of the province.
However, the authorities have postponed a planned anti-polio vaccination campaign in the restive Kurram district citing a fragile security situation after weeks of deadly clashes in the district.
Anti-polio vaccinations campaign in Sindh
On Saturday last, the health department in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province said the upcoming vaccination drive in the province would target 10.6 million children under the age of five years to protect them from the debilitating poliovirus.
“Over 80,000 frontline workers will participate in the campaign in the Sindh province to vaccinate 10.7 million children. “To provide a secure environment for these efforts, 15,000 security personnel will be deployed across Sindh,” the provincial health department said in a statement.
“To provide a secure environment for these efforts, 15,000 security personnel will be deployed across Sindh,” it added.
The seven-day final anti-polio vaccination campaign of 2024 was launched by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last night and will continue from December 16 to 22.
Earlier on Friday, the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health confirmed the detection of four wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan.
Polio cases in Pakistan year to year
The country is witnessing an intense resurgence of Wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) this year, with 63 cases reported so far. Of these, 26 cases are from Balochistan, 18 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 17 from Sindh province. The country’s polio programme confirmed one each in Punjab and the federal capital of Islamabad.
Despite global efforts to eradicate polio, Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only countries where the virus remains endemic.
