LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: The first polio vaccination drive of 2021 will begin on Monday and immunise some 40 million children under the age of five against the crippling disease with a focus on high-risk cities including Karachi and Quetta.
The five-day campaign will involve 285,000 health workers who while observing coronavirus-related standard operating procedures (SOPs) will go door-to-door to vaccinate children.
According to a statement, during the drive, the trained polio frontline workers will reach every child with essential polio vaccine while adhering to strict health guidelines such as wearing a mask, using hand sanitiser, and maintaining the minimum distance advised during the campaign.
“Our aim is to ensure timely and repeated vaccination of children. This is key to reduce the immunity gap and to protect our children against polio and other diseases,” Dr Faisal Sultan, the prime minister’s special assistant on national health services, said through a statement issued by the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme (PPEP).
During the drive, a supplementary dose of Vitamin-A drops will be administered to children aged between six months to five years “help build general immunity among susceptible children to protect them from polio and other diseases,” PPEP said.
“With our highly committed frontline workers, and the cooperation of parents and caregivers, the program aims to restrict the geographic scope of poliovirus circulation to the high-risk areas only and get closer to the goal of eradication in 2021,” Dr. Rana Muhammad Safdar, polio eradication coordinator at the National Institute of Health (NIH), said.
Pakistan is one of the two polio-endemic countries in the world along with Afghanistan. The country is facing a challenging situation in polio eradication with the upsurge in the number of polio cases. In 2020, 83 polio cases were reported across the country, including 24 from Balochistan, 22 each from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Sindh, and 14 from Punjab.
The government’s efforts to rid the country of polio have lately suffered setbacks due to attacks on vaccinators and police personnel guarding them. The deadly violence is also cited as a factor for the upsurge in new cases that had dropped to only 12 cases in 2018.
Strict security measures had been taken for the campaign and personnel of Balochistan Levies force, police and Frontier Corps (FC) would move with all teams of vaccinations.
In traditionally conservative parts of the country, many see the vaccine as a Western-led conspiracy to sterilise children. To deal with the situation, religious scholars, tribal elders and other people who have influence in their areas would motivate parents to get their children vaccinated.
