More than 43.3 million children up to five years old have been vaccinated against polio in the first five days of a nationwide anti-polio campaign, the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) said on Saturday, according to the state report. Radio Pakistan.
Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. The only effective protection is through repeated doses of oral polio vaccine for each child under five years of age during each campaign, together with timely completion of all essential vaccines. Pakistan is one of the last two countries in the world, along with Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic.
Yesterday’s data reported that more than 22.9 million children have received oral polio vaccine in Punjab, while approximately 10.2 million children have been immunized in Sindh.
“In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, more than 6.1 million children have been vaccinated… in Balochistan, more than 2.5 million; in Islamabad, around 443,000; in Gilgit-Baltistan, nearly 294,000 and in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, more than 733,000 children have received the vaccine.” Radio Pakistan aggregate.
Of those who received the vaccine in Punjab during the first six days of the campaign, more than 2.2 million were in Lahore, the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) he said on Sunday.
The week-long anti-polio campaign in Lahore was launched under Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s vision of a Zero Polio Punjab.
According Radio PakistanThe ongoing national campaign aims to vaccinate more than 45 million children and will continue uninterrupted until today. Meanwhile, in South KP, the campaign will start tomorrow (Monday).
The NEOC urged parents to ensure that all children under the age of five receive the polio vaccine, the outlet added.
Progress meeting
A review meeting was held in his office on Sunday to assess the progress of the campaign in Punjab under the chairmanship of Lahore Deputy Commissioner Syed Musa Raza, according to APPLICATION.
The meeting was attended by Additional Deputy Commissioner (General), Executive Director (Health) Dr Asif Arbab, Deputy Commissioners, health department officials and observers from the World Health Organization (WHO).
During the meeting, Arbab said that more than 2.212 million children had been vaccinated so far across the provincial capital, while an additional 73,900 children who had not received the vaccine were covered during the first day of recovery. The district administration and health teams remained fully active on the ground to achieve the set objectives, he added.
Arbab further informed the meeting that the campaign achieved more than 99 percent of its target with more than 1.559 million households successfully covered, putting the coverage rate at more than 95 percent. The WHO representatives expressed satisfaction with the overall performance of the district teams and appreciated the dedication and commitment of the field staff who are working tirelessly to eradicate this crippling disease.
Deputy Commissioner Syed Musa Raza stressed that the anti-polio campaign must be a complete success in all aspects. He directed all deputy commissioners to minimize the number of excluded children and directed deputy district health officers (DDHOs) to ensure strict monitoring on the ground.
He also said that 100 per cent coverage should be ensured in schools, adding that any operational issues had to be immediately reported to the district administration for immediate action.
“All children under five years of age must be vaccinated; meeting the targets is mandatory,” the DC stressed, warning that officers who did not meet their targets would be held responsible.
“Making Lahore polio-free is a shared responsibility. We must fulfill our national duty for the sake of our children’s future,” he added.
Despite global efforts to eradicate the virus, challenges such as safety concerns, vaccine hesitancy and misinformation have slowed progress. More than 200,000 anti-polio workers and supervisors are taking part in the ongoing campaign across Punjab.
Data from September showed that the number of children left unvaccinated due to parental refusal had decreased in the recent immunization campaign compared to the previous campaign.
However, the global polio surveillance board issued a warning that efforts to eradicate the disease were failing, as a new confirmed polio case in Hyderabad, Sindh, the same month raised the national count to 27 this year, according to the National Institutes of Health.
In August, two new cases of poliovirus were reported: a six-year-old girl from Kohistan district in KP and a 21-month-old girl from Badin in Sindh.
Earlier that month, poliovirus was found in 36 percent of samples tested in July in 87 national districts.
