ISLAMABAD: Pakistani health authorities have vaccinated 17.4 million children in the first four days of an ongoing week-long anti-polio drive, the National Emergency Operation Center (NEOC) said on Friday.
Polio is a highly contagious viral disease that can cause irreversible paralysis and, in some cases, death, but can be prevented through repeated doses of oral vaccines. Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two countries worldwide where the disease is still endemic.
Islamabad on May 18 launched a sub-national anti-polio vaccination campaign in 79 “high risk” districts to contain the virus, days after health authorities confirmed two polio infections in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
The NEOC said on Friday that the fifth day of the campaign was continuing in specific districts, with more than 160,000 vaccinators going door to door to administer polio vaccine to children under the age of five years.
“Over 17.4 million children have been vaccinated across the country in the first four days,” it said in a statement.
Over 5.53 million children have received polio vaccine in 10 selected districts of Punjab, over 5.65 million in 20 selected districts of Sindh, over 4 million in 23 selected districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and over 1.7 million children have received polio drops in 25 selected districts of Balochistan, according to the NEOC.
In Islamabad, over 435,000 children have received the vaccine during the campaign that will continue till May 24.
Earlier this week, unidentified gunmen killed two police officers protecting polio vaccination workers in KP on the first day of the campaign, a security official said on Monday.
Pakistan is one of two countries, along with Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic, but militants have killed hundreds of police officers and health workers over the past decade as part of a campaign against the Pakistani state.
There is a raft of misinformation circulating about the vaccine in rural Pakistan, including that it is a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plot to stop Muslims from having children.
“Polio is an incurable disease that can disable children for life,” the NEOC said, urging the masses to open their doors to polio workers and make it mandatory for their children to be vaccinated against the disease.
