ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Polio Eradication Program said on Tuesday more than 32 million children under the age of five had been vaccinated in 130 districts across Pakistan during an immunization campaign launched this month.
Wearing face masks and gloves, Pakistani vaccinators last month resumed an anti-polio drive that had been halted since March due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The disruption of the drive has raised fears of a spike in polio cases in Pakistan, which, along with neighboring Afghanistan, is just one of two countries in the world where the disease remains endemic.
“According to the National Emergency Operations Center for Polio Eradication, a total of 32,100,802 children have been vaccinated against poliovirus across the country,” the Polio Program said in a statement. “A total of 225,000 trained vaccinators were deployed and went door-to-door for vaccination defying the harsh weather.”
All vaccinators were trained on coronavirus preventative measures, especially handling of children during vaccination, the Program said.
“We have managed to achieve impressive coverage despite the challenging context of the COVID-19, hot weather and heavy rainfall…. Children have also been administered Vitamin A supplements to strengthen their immune system for greater protection against diseases during this campaign,” Dr. Rana Muhammad Safdar, a coordinator at the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme, said.
“Still, we have challenges to overcome,” he added. “Data-driven analysis of challenges at the grassroots level helps us identify the underlying issues associated with missed children, pockets of refusals as well as reservoirs of poliovirus circulation.”
Last year, religious hard-liners in the northwestern city of Peshawar spread rumors of children falling sick due to the vaccine, triggering backlash in the conservative northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where most of Pakistan’s new polio cases have been detected.
Mobs burned a village health center, blocked a highway and pelted cars with stones. Medical workers were harassed and threatened. A woman vaccinator and two policemen escorting the polio team were also shot dead in separate incidents last year.
