KARACHI: The provincial administration of Sindh on Friday announced tough measures against parents refusing polio vaccination for their children, as the country grapples with a rising number of cases of the crippling disease.
Last month, the National Institute of Health confirmed two poliovirus cases in the province, raising the nationwide tally to 29 this year. Pakistan remains one of the two countries, alongside Afghanistan, where polio is still endemic.
Efforts to eradicate the virus have been undermined by parental refusals, misinformation and militant attacks on vaccination workers. In some areas, inoculation teams operate under police protection, but security personnel have also been targeted and killed.
“I have no other option but to penalize those who shirk their national responsibility of eradicating polio,” Shah Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah told officials at a meeting in Karachi, according to a statement circulated by his office. “This responsibility begins at home and affects the entire province and the country.”
The statement said Shah’s administration was considering blocking national identity cards, mobile SIM cards and passports of parents refusing vaccination to deny them travel and communication privileges.
The chief minister also ordered the establishment of a polio refusal cell, directing the health authorities to provide detailed data on refusing parents at the union council level so refusals can be countered through social, political and administrative channels.
He also instructed that vaccination be ensured in all such households.
Shah asked the provincial chief secretary to prepare a plan to block IDs, SIMs and passports, adding that the forthcoming Oct. 13 vaccination campaign should be run like a “war strategy” and warning that negligence would not be tolerated.
Some health and administrative officials have already been removed for poor performance, he said, and more could follow.
Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. The only protection is repeated doses of the Oral Polio Vaccine for every child under five, alongside routine immunizations.
Pakistan recorded 74 cases in 2024, up from six in 2023 and just one in 2021.
The official statement said Sindh had reported nine cases so far this year, with many of the infections, particularly in Karachi and Malir, linked to parental refusals.
Environmental samples from several Karachi neighborhoods have also tested positive for the virus.
During the September campaign, over 216,000 children in the province missed vaccination, including 35,000 whose parents refused.
