Around a million children were missed and 53,000 refusals were reported during the year’s first nationwide polio campaign.
The largest share of refusals, i.e. 58 per cent, was reported from Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi. The campaign concluded on February 5 in most cities, while the campaign ran till February 8 in Sindh.
During the campaign, polio drops were administered to more than 44.3 million children, marking a significant milestone in Pakistan’s continued efforts to eradicate polio.
While the data shows that the polio programme achieved overall household coverage of 98pc, with 2pc children missed, the number of missed children is still huge and worrisome given Pakistan’s population.
Overall, 0.95m children were reported as missed during the campaign. A large proportion of these (0.67m) were missed because children were not available at home at the time of vaccination.
During the campaign, 2.5 million guest children were vaccinated, likely covering a substantial share of children recorded as not being available at home.
“233,000 children were reported as leftovers due to security constraints, community boycotts, and snow-bound areas,” an official of the programme said, wishing not to be quoted.
“Of the total leftovers, 184,000 were from KP, including 113,000 from south KP. In AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan, around 50,000 children remained unreachable due to snow-bound areas and non-conduct of campaigns.”
“In Balochistan, the polio eradication campaign was postponed in Mastung, Gwadar, Chagai, and Awaran due to security reasons. 0.14pc of the total targeted children were reported as refusals, with 31,000 refusals from Karachi, forming the largest share,” the official added.
“The National Emergency Operation Center (EOC) extends its sincere appreciation to all relevant stakeholders for their cooperation, commitment, and active participation in ensuring the successful implementation of the campaign,” said a statement issued by the EOC.
The statement said that in Punjab, more than 22.9m children were vaccinated. In Sindh, over 10.5m children, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, more than 7.13 million and in Balochistan, over 2.36m children were vaccinated.
