17.41m Children Immunised In First Phase Of Polio Drive

News Desk

Islamabad: The government has successfully completed the first phase of polio vaccination campaign to immunize over 17.41 million children five years old in Sindh and Punjab.

The five-day vaccination campaign was 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 were vaccinated from March 13 to 17.

The second phase will be held from April 3 to 7 to vaccinate over 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 make sure that their kids receive the potentially life-saving polio vaccine so they can continue to be protected from the virus, which has been discovered to be circulating in environmental samples.

He stated that the presence of wild polio in the environment demonstrates that the virus is spreading throughout our communities and poses a major risk to our children.

The minister emphasised the need of parents and carers immunising their children during this and every campaign because population movements can enhance the risk of additional spread with Ramadan and Eid just around the corner.

“The March campaign is specifically created to target places where population movement is not only regular but also anticipated around Ramadan and the Eid celebration,” said National Emergency Operations Center Coordinator Dr Shahzad Baig,

Dr Shahzad stated that it is crucial that we give the vaccination to as many children as we can right away to stop the spread of polio. Since September 2022, when a polio outbreak paralysed 20 youngsters, all of whom were in southern KP districts, no human cases have been documented in Pakistan.

For the first time this year, wild poliovirus was found in samples of sewage taken in January from two different locations in Lahore. Since then, polio has been detected in two more samples. A sample taken from D.I. Khan contained wild polio, whereas a sample from Ghotki had mutant poliovirus.

The polio programme has made every effort to guarantee that children receive the immunisation to protect them from this highly contagious disease in light of the positive environmental samples found in some locations.

The Sehat Tahhafuz Helpline 1166 and 24/7 WhatsApp Helpline 0346-777-65-46 will be available to assist parents and care-givers in reporting about children who miss vaccination and providing related information.