Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan each launched a fresh vaccination campaign against polio on Monday. This comes amid a resurgence in cases. These two countries are the only ones globally where the virus continues to be endemic and paralyzes children.
The World Health Organization reported 64 polio infections this year: 41 from Pakistan and 23 from Afghanistan, up from six each in both countries in 2023.
Pakistani officials said that the weeklong house-to-house nationwide campaign rolled out on Monday enlists 400,000 polio workers. These workers aim to vaccinate over 45 million children under five against the paralytic disease.
“This is Pakistan’s third nationwide campaign this year, launched in response to the alarming increase in polio cases across 71 districts,” said Ayesha Raza Farooq, the prime minister’s point-person for polio eradication.
Rising Polio Cases in Pakistan
More than half the infections in 2024 are located in southwestern Balochistan province. Furthermore, this province sits on the Afghan border and is facing an intense transmission of the poliovirus. In addition, the southern province of Sindh has recorded 12 cases this year. Meanwhile, other regions in Pakistan, a country of more than 240 million, have reported the remaining cases, according to Pakistan’s polio eradication program.
Anwarul Haq, the coordinator of the National Emergency Operations Center for Polio Eradication, urged parents to cooperate with health teams. He emphasized the importance of protecting their children against the crippling disease and stressed that there is no cure for polio. “With the threat at an all-time high, we must act as one nation to keep our children safe through vaccination,” he stated.
Local and WHO officials attribute the resurgence of the poliovirus in Pakistan to vaccine boycotts in rural areas. These boycotts stem from false propaganda that suggests these initiatives are a Western plot to sterilize Muslim children.
Additionally, anti-state militants in violence-hit districts bordering Afghanistan occasionally attack vaccinators and their police escorts. They suspect these individuals of spying for the government. This violence has resulted in the deaths of dozens of polio workers and police personnel. This year, at least two vaccinators and seven police members have been killed.
Also See: Six Polio Cases in Af-Pak in One Week: WHO Calls for Urgent Action
Afghanistan
Meanwhile, health officials in Taliban-led Afghanistan announced Monday the opening of a three-day polio vaccination campaign, saying it aims to reach 6.2 million children under five in 16 of the country’s 34 provinces. The target areas are primarily located close to the border with Pakistan.
The latest round of this year’s anti-polio campaign in Afghanistan began after nearly a two-month delay. Taliban authorities abruptly halted house-to-house vaccine deliveries in the southern province of Kandahar without publicly stating any reason. Instead, the de facto Afghan authorities stressed the need to conduct vaccinations for children from site to site and mosque to mosque.
In a report released last month, an independent monitoring board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative stated that the Taliban’s actions had stemmed from their “administration’s concerns about covert surveillance activities.” Moreover, the report quoted Taliban officials as explaining that their leadership is living in Kandahar and has concerns about their security.
Kandahar is regarded as the unofficial capital of Afghanistan under Taliban rule. It is where the militant group’s reclusive supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, resides. He governs the country through his decrees, which are based on his strict interpretation of Islam.
The Taliban chief has banned most Afghan women from public and private sector workplaces and barred girls from receiving an education beyond the sixth grade.
WHO officials say eradicating polio in Afghanistan requires comprehensive integration of large migrant populations into the vaccination program. They say it is also crucial to reach out to groups that refuse vaccination and establish a female public health workforce dedicated to the polio initiative to tackle multiple challenges facing polio-eradication efforts in the impoverished country.
This news is sourced from [VoA] and is for informational purposes only
