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Pakistani authorities are preparing to launch a nationwide vaccination campaign for children under five.
Pakistani health authorities have confirmed six more polio cases, bringing the total number of cases this year to 39.
The new cases of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) included three in Balochistan, two in Sindh, and one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Polio, an infectious disease that causes severe paralysis in young children, has been virtually eradicated worldwide through decades of vaccination efforts.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last remaining countries with ongoing outbreaks. There is no cure for the disease, and the paralysis caused by the infection is irreversible.
“This should be a wake-up call to all parents and communities,” Ayesha Raza Farooq, Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s polio eradication chief, recently said.
“Every case of paralytic polio means that hundreds of children are silently affected by the poliovirus, potentially carrying it and spreading it throughout the community,” she said. added.
This year, 20 cases were detected in Balochistan, Pakistan’s worst-hit province. This is followed by Sindh with 12 cases. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa registered five cases, while Punjab and Islamabad reported one each.
Melissa Korkum, head of UNICEF’s Pakistan polio team, told the BBC: “Continued population movements, security challenges in high-risk areas and persistent vaccine hesitancy all contribute to the persistence of the virus. ”, he said.
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Polio vaccine health workers have previously been provided with armed guards to protect them from militants who falsely claim the polio vaccine is a plot to sterilize Muslims.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed at least 18 cases of polio in neighboring Afghanistan this year, most of them in the country’s south.
Pakistan will launch a nationwide polio vaccination campaign on October 28 to vaccinate more than 45 million children under the age of five against paralytic polio.
Before the recent surge in infections, Pakistan and its population of more than 240 million people were on the verge of eradicating the disease.
The country recorded 20 infections in 2022, only six in 2023, and just one in 2021.
Health officials say they face many challenges in convincing people to vaccinate their children.
Hardline clerics and armed groups have campaigned against vaccination, falsely claiming it was a Western plot to sterilize Muslims. As a result, many communities are avoiding vaccination.
In recent years, several polio vaccine recipients and the security officials accompanying them have come under attack by extremists. At least 15 people, mostly police officers, have been killed and dozens injured during vaccination campaigns this year.
“In the past, safety concerns have delayed and fragmented campaigns, resulting in missed immunization opportunities and leaving children vulnerable,” said UNICEF official Colkum.
