Karachi: Despite continued immunization campaigns, more than 75,000 children aged less than five years have never been administered polio drops in Sindh, it emerged on Friday.
They are among the country’s nearly half a million children who have never received any vaccine against polio, according to the figures compiled by the emergency operations center of Sindh.
Of around 440,000 children, 245,000 life in Balochistan, 75,000 in Sindh, 60,000 in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and 51,000 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
According to the data, no child missed the polio dose in Punjab. Balochistan is the only province where the number of reported polio cases increased from two during the first eight months of last year to four during this year’s corresponding period.
The number of polio cases dropped this year in Fata and all the other provinces. Sindh has recorded four cases this year, while there were 13 polio cases detected last year. In Fata, the cases dropped from 103 to eight, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the polio cases reduced from 24 to 13.
Punjab has registered no polio cases since January, while one was recorded last year.
Officials said Karachi had not reported any polio cases since October 2014.
75pc reduction
Last year 306 polio cases were reported across the country. While a 75 percent reduction was recorded during the eight months of this year, the country still shared over 90pc of the polio cases recorded worldwide.
They said September marked the first month of the low transmission season for the poliovirus when efforts to attack it would have maximum impact. “This year, Pakistan has an extraordinary opportunity to take the world over the finishing line for polio eradication,” said an official.
Officials at the program said inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) was being added to vaccination campaigns to help boost immunity, for example, in high-risk areas of Balochistan, Fata, Karachi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.
They said more than 200,000 motivated frontline health workers had been selected from communities and trained to ensure every child was reached. Every parent could trust vaccinators to protect their children from polio.
