KARACHI: Pakistani health authorities have postponed an anti-polio campaign in nine districts in the eastern Punjab province due to floods, the country’s polio program said on Friday.
Rivers in Pakistan, particularly Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej, have swelled to dangerous levels due to record monsoon rains and excess water released from upstream India, forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate in the most populous Punjab province.
Pakistan’s polio program has announced an anti-polio vaccination campaign in 99 districts across the country, starting Sept. 1, with an aim to inoculate more than 28 million children against the crippling disease.
But the flood situation has forced health authorities to postpone the drive in Lahore, Sheikhupura, Kasur, Okara, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Multan, Muzaffargarh and Bahawalpur districts.
“The polio campaign in other parts of the country will start from September 1,” the polio program said in a statement. “The campaign in Rawalpindi, Attock, Mianwali, Faisalabad, DG Khan, Rajanpur and Rahim Yar Khan districts [of Punjab] will be held as per schedule.”
Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. The only effective protection is through repeated doses of the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) for every child under five during each campaign, alongside timely completion of all routine immunizations.
Pakistan confirmed two new polio cases in its northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province this week, bringing the total number of children affected by the virus this year to 23. The country and neighboring Afghanistan remain the only two where polio is still endemic.
Pakistan made significant progress in curbing the virus, with annual cases dropping from around 20,000 in the early 1990s to just eight in 2018. It reported six cases in 2023 and only one in 2021, but saw a sharp resurgence in 2024 with 74 cases recorded.
The polio program urged the masses to cooperate with vaccinators whenever they visit them: “Parents are appealed to make it mandatory for their children below 5 years of age to be given polio drops.”
