Polio vaccination drive begins April 21 across Pakistan

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will launch a five-day polio eradication campaign on April 21, reported. The campaign aims to administer polio drops to more than 6 million children across the province.

According to the provincial health department on Tuesday, the polio vaccine will be administered to over 800,000 children in the capital city of Peshawar.

To carry out the campaign, authorities have formed over 30,000 teams, and 50,000 police personnel will be deployed to ensure security during the drive.

Health officials confirmed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reported one case of polio so far this year, highlighting the importance of ongoing vaccination efforts. It is worth mentioning that the final sub-national polio campaign in Pakistan for 2024 failed to reach its intended target, leaving 1,122,537 children unvaccinated.

The campaign aimed to vaccinate 36,360,037 children, but sources confirmed that only 35,712,922 children received the vaccine, indicating that 98 percent of the vaccination target was achieved.

The sources added that 739,201 children were unavailable for vaccination during the polio campaign in Pakistan, while 71,330 parents refused to allow their children to receive the vaccine. They confirmed that, in total, the sub-national campaign left 302,006 children unvaccinated.