Daily Times

Pakistan’s fight against polio faces a renewed challenge as a recent national anti-polio campaign encountered resistance from a significant number of parents.

According to media reports, over 63,000 parents across Pakistan refused to vaccinate their children during the campaign with a significant majority from the province of Sindh.

The breakdown of the refusal rates by province is as follows: 38,749 parents in Sindh declined the drops, followed by 20,392 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and 4,081 in Balochistan. Additionally, 175 parents in Punjab, 75 in Islamabad, and 24 in Azad Kashmir also chose not to administer the polio drops to their children. The national anti-polio campaign, which aimed to vaccinate children across the country, was conducted from February 26 to March 15.

In a parallel development, the Ministry of Health has disclosed that the polio virus has been detected in environmental samples from eight cities. Specifically, the virus was identified in 12 sewage samples, including one case of wild polio virus and three YBA cluster cases.

These rising refusal rates, coupled with the confirmed presence of the polio virus in various cities, underscore the urgent need for increased public awareness and education about the critical role of polio vaccination in eradicating the disease from the country.