A police officer stands as a health worker (right) administers polio vaccine to a child in a neighborhood in Peshawar, Pakistan. file | Photo Credit: AP
Pakistan launched a nationwide vaccination campaign on Monday (Oct 28, 2024) to protect 45 million children from polio after a surge in new cases has hampered years of efforts to stop the disease in one of the two countries that has Where it has never ended.
Pakistan regularly carries out such operations, but violence targeting health workers and the police deployed to protect them is common. Extremists falsely claim the vaccination campaign is a Western plot to sterilize children.
Two new cases of polio reported in Pakistan; This year this number increased to 39
Ayesha Raza Farooq, advisor to the prime minister for the polio eradication programme, said the campaign is the third one this year and will continue till Sunday “in response to the alarming increase in polio cases”. “We are re-energized in our efforts to combat polio,” he said in a statement.
During the door-to-door campaign, children under five years of age will be vaccinated and given Vitamin A supplements to boost their immunity. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif recently met frontline health workers and urged them to go door-to-door to ensure that no child is deprived of vaccination.
Anwarul Haq, who is the coordinator of the National Emergency Operations Center for polio eradication, also urged parents to cooperate fully with polio workers. “There is no cure for polio, but it can be prevented with this easily available vaccine,” he said.
Four new cases of polio were reported in Pakistan, this year the number increased to 37.
“Pakistan has reported 41 cases in 71 districts so far this year,” Ms Farooq said. The highest number of cases were reported from south-western Balochistan and southern Sindh province, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The surge in cases in new locations is a matter of concern for authorities as previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government abruptly halted a door-to-door vaccination campaign in September.
Officials in Pakistan say the Afghan Taliban’s recent decision to end door-to-door anti-polio campaigns will have ramifications beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country. The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 cases of polio in Afghanistan this year.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where the spread of polio has never stopped. It is one of the most contagious diseases in the world, so it continues to spread in places where people have not been fully vaccinated. In severe cases, polio can cause permanent paralysis and death.
published – October 28, 2024 01:27 PM IST