Pakistan launches another vaccination drive after alarming rise in polio cases

Islamabad: Pakistan launches nationwide vaccination campaign A surge in new cases marked the end of polio on Monday when 45 million children were killed, hampering years of efforts to stop the disease in one of only two countries where it has never been eradicated.
Pakistan regularly carries out such operations, but violence targeting health workers and the police deployed to protect them is common. Extremists falsely claim the vaccination campaign is a Western plot to sterilize children.
The campaign is its third this year and will continue until Sunday “in response to the worrying rise in polio cases”. Ayesha Raza FarooqAdvisor to the Prime Minister for the Polio Eradication Programme. “We are re-energized in our efforts to combat polio,” he said in a statement.
During the door-to-door campaign, children below 5 years of age will be vaccinated and given Vitamin A supplements to boost their immunity.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif Recently met front-line health workers and urged them to go door-to-door to ensure that no child is left out of vaccination.
Anwarul Haq, who is the coordinator of the National Emergency Operations Center for polio eradication, also urged parents to cooperate fully with polio workers. “There is no cure for polio, but it can be prevented with this easily available vaccine,” he said.
Farooq said that so far this year in Pakistan, 41 cases have been registered in 71 districts. Most were reported from south-western Balochistan and southern Sindh province, after Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province and East Punjab Province.
The surge in cases in new locations is a matter of concern for authorities as previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government abruptly halted a door-to-door vaccination campaign in September.
Officials in Pakistan say the Afghan Taliban’s recent decision to end door-to-door anti-polio campaigns will have ramifications beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country. The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 cases of polio in Afghanistan this year.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where the spread of polio has never stopped. It is one of the most contagious diseases in the world, so it continues to spread in places where people have not been fully vaccinated. In severe cases, polio can cause permanent paralysis and death.