Polio Vaccine Drive Launched
Polio Vaccine Drive Launched: Government of Pakistan has launched a new polio vaccination drive for 2018, aiming to reach 38.7 million children under the age of five. Pakistan is one of few countries where polio is still endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria.
Dr Rana Mohammad Safdar, the national coordinator for polio eradication, says that some 260,000 polio workers will take part in the campaign, which started earlier this week.
Government is planning to start a similar campaign in the tribal regions. Polio workers and their police escorts often come under attack by militants in 2011. The situation after 2014 has changed after hundreds of community influencers including Pakhtun elders joined the fight against polio.
“It is the responsibility of all parents to vaccinate their children and show no carelessness in this regard every time polio drops are offered”, one Pakhtun Maulana endorsing polio vaccination.
Pakistan is one of the last three remaining strongholds of polio virus in the world. The number of polio cases has increased in tribal region. Almost all polio cases reported from North and South Waziristan agencies did not receive any dose of oral polio vaccine (OPV). The only polio cases reported outside FATA/KP in 2014 are from the greater Karachi area.
As per report, sizable share of parents in Pakistan (30%) believes that the paralysis from polio would be curable if their child got sick. As another example, fifth of parents were not aware that Oral Polio Vaccine must be taken every time it is offered in order to maximize protection for their children against the disease, 37% in FATA, 19% in lower-conflict areas of Pakistan.
Reports of recent deaths of 3 children in Peshawar due to polio vaccine are regarded as totally false and an investigation team comprising of a District Health Officer (DHO), Representative of the DC office and two pediatricians has been constituted to investigate the matter in detail.
Polio vaccine is the safest vaccine ever developed and over 10 billion doses of OPV and eleven million IPV have been administered to children in Pakistan and there have been confirmed report of no reaction among any of the child across the country. This vaccine is now considered safest by the leading medical practitioners of the world and Pakistan.
Get your children vaccinated, encourage your neighbors and friends for it as well. You can be the ambassador of health by making a polio free Pakistan. Together we can, together we must!!!
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