Over 37 million children under five vaccinated for polio in Pakistan

Peshawar, Dec 18 (PTI) Over 37 million children up to the age of five have been vaccinated during the first three days of the national anti-polio drive amid tight security arrangements across Pakistan, National Emergency Operations Centre said on Thursday.

Polio drops have been administered to 20.8 million children in Punjab, over 7.4 million in Sindh, 6.1 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 2.1 million in Balochistan, 4,17,000 in Islamabad, 2,56,000 in Gilgit Baltistan and 6,89,000 children in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir during the first three days of the campaign.

Despite tight security cordon, unknown gunmen targeted two polio teams in Bajaur and Lakki Marwat districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan on the first day of the anti polio drive, killing four people, including two policemen guarding polio teams.

The National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) said in a statement that over 4,00,000 polio workers had been going door to door to administer polio drops to children during the vaccination campaign.

“The success of the national polio campaign is not possible without the full participation of parents and the community,” NEOC stressed, and called on parents to ensure that their children under five years of age were administered the vaccine.

The week-long campaign, which began on December 15, is aimed at vaccinating over 45 million children under the age of five.

Pakistan is one of the last two countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic. So far, the country has recorded 30 polio cases this year, with the highest number of cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. PTI AYZ NPK NPK