KARACHI: Pakistani health authorities launched a nationwide campaign on Monday to vaccinate over 57 million children against rubella, measles and polio diseases this month, the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) said.
The NEOC said the campaign will be held across the country from Nov. 17-29, during which 34.5 million children will be vaccinated against measles and rubella. All children from the ages of six months to five years will receive these vaccines. Meanwhile, in 90 high-risk districts across the country, 23.3 million children will be administered anti-polio drops this week, the NEOC said.
Measles, rubella, and polio are highly contagious diseases that continue to pose public health challenges in Pakistan, particularly among children. Measles and rubella spread through respiratory droplets and can cause pneumonia and encephalitis, while polio attacks the nervous system and can lead to irreversible paralysis. In the past three years, Pakistan has reported more than 131,000 measles cases, as per official data.
“The vaccines will be available at government health facilities, schools, madrassas [seminaries] and temporary vaccination centers,” the EOC said in a statement.
The NEOC said during the anti-measles and rubella campaign, 6.8 million children will receive polio vaccine drops in Punjab while 8.4 million children will be vaccinated in Sindh. Around 2.246 million children will be administered polio drops in Balochistan, 5.246 million children in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province and 136,000 in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region. In Islamabad, 461,000 children are expected to receive polio drops.
Meanwhile, for measles and rubella, 17.3 million children in Punjab will be vaccinated while 8.2 million children in Sindh will be provided vaccines, the NEOC said. In KP, over 5.98 million children will be administered vaccines, in Balochistan more than 2.7 million will be vaccinated and in Azad Kashmir, over 624,000 children will be vaccinated against the diseases.
The NEOC said in GB, more than 246,000 children while in Islamabad over 225,000 children will be vaccinated against measles and rubella.
“Parents are urged to ensure their children’s vaccination to protect them from measles, rubella, and polio,” the NEOC said.
While measles, rubella and polio all are preventable through vaccination, sporadic outbreaks in the past have highlight gaps in immunization coverage, misinformation and access to health care in remote areas in the South Asian country of over 241 million people.
Last month, Pakistan ran a week-long, anti-polio immunization campaign, with vaccinators going door-to-door to inoculate over 45 million children nationwide despite multiple attacks.
Pakistan, one of the last two nations in the world along with Afghanistan where polio remains endemic, has reported 30 polio cases so far this year.
