Over half a million children in Pakistan have missed polio vaccines in recently launched three-day polio immunization drive.
Islamabad, July 6/Nationalturk – The efforts to make Pakistan – a polio free country have failed as over half a million children in the Muslim Asian nation have missed polio vaccines in recently launched immunization drive to eradicate the disease.
“At least 0.68 million children in Pakistan missed polio vaccination due to law and order situation and administrative issues during a three-day polio campaign in high-risk zones from July 1 to July 3,” reveals a report prepared by Polio Operation Room (POR).
The report states that only 60% of the targeted children were vaccinated during July 1-3 vaccination drive. “About 685,661 children missed vaccination again in the high risk zones”.
It said three-day vaccination campaign was aimed to target 17.4 million children of less than five years of age in 90 districts of the country.
‘Fluid security in Pakistan major reason’
Pakistan newspaper, Express Tribune quoted Dr Altaf Bosan, national coordinator for monitoring Pakistan’s polio vaccination programme as saying that major reason for the children missing polio vaccination is the fluid security situation in some parts of the country especially in tribal areas and Khyber Pakthunkhwa province.
There are reports that 40,971 children did not receive polio vaccines in their routine immunisation after childbirth.
“It is a fact that despite advocating strong routine immunisation, we are unable to achieve the desired immunisation. The international health agencies have been expressing concerns that we have not been able to protect our children against vaccine preventable diseases,” Pakistan’s Minister of State for Health Saira Afzal Tarar said.
Pakistan is one of three countries in the world where polio has yet to be eradicated.
TTP has carried many attacks on polio workers
Pakistan’s dreaded militant outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) has carried out several attack on polio vaccine immunization workers including women volunteers, killing many of them. The country had to suspend polio immunization drive in some parts of the country in view of security threat.
According to officials, militants started attacking anti-polio workers after a Pakistani doctor, Shakeel Afridi, ran a fake polio campaign in the city of Abbottabad to help United States track down Alqaida chief Osama bin Laden.
They said there are some misconceptions among uneducated people about the polio drops. They say the medicine in the vaccine is forbidden by Islam. We tell them the government wouldn’t start this if it was bad for your children.”
Pakistan is one of three countries in the world where polio has yet to be eradicated.
Polio, a highly infectious viral disease that can cause permanent paralysis in a matter of hours, has been eradicated around the world except for three countries where it is endemic: Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan.
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Faiz Ahmad / NationalTurk Pakistan News
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