21m children to be given polio shots

A polio vaccination campaign to immunise more than 21.54 million children under the age of five will kick off in Sindh and Punjab on March 13 (today).

The five-day vaccination campaign is being held in two phases due to the concurrent activities of the seventh national census.

In the first phase, over 17.41 million children under the age of five in 13 districts of Punjab and 16 districts of Sindh and Islamabad will be vaccinated from March 13 to March 17.

The second phase will be held from April 3 to 7, during the second week of Ramazan, to vaccinate more than 4.12 million children in 12 districts of Balochistan and 26 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including the seven endemic districts in the southern region of the province.

Federal Minister for Health Abdul Qadir Patel urged parents and caregivers to ensure that their children receive the life-saving polio vaccine so that they remain protected from poliovirus, which has been found circulating in environmental samples.

“The presence of wild polio in the environment shows that the virus is circulating in our communities and posing a serious risk to our children,” said Qadir Patel.

“With Ramazan and Eid around the corner, population movements can increase the risk of further spread; therefore, it is critical that parents and caregivers vaccinate their children in this and every campaign,” he added.

No human case has been reported in Pakistan since September 2022, when a polio outbreak paralysed 20 children, all of them in southern K-P districts.

Wild poliovirus was detected for the first time this year in sewage samples collected from two separate sites in Lahore in January.

Two more samples have since tested positive for polio: a wild strain of polio has been detected in a sample collected from Dera Ismail Khan, and a variant poliovirus has been detected in a sample from Ghotki.

The polio programme has taken all-out efforts to ensure vaccination of children to keep them safe from this highly infectious disease in the context of positive environmental samples detected in some places.

Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by the poliovirus and mainly effects children under the age of five years. It invades the nervous system and can cause paralysis or even death. While there is no cure for polio, vaccination is the most effective way to protect children from the crippling disease.

Each time a child under the age of five is vaccinated, the protection against the virus increases.

APP with input from News Desk