ISLAMABAD:The third nationwide polio vaccination campaign reached more than 40 million under five-year age children with lifesaving vaccines.
During the drive children also received Vitamin-A capsules while a total of 335,387 frontline polio workers along with other team members worked in collaboration to ensure vaccination of children, including those living hard to reach areas.
“The programme has made significant gains with not a single case being reported for eight months, giving us a unique opportunity to achieve polio eradication,” said Dr. Shahzad Baig, Coordinator of the National Emergency Operations Centre, Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI).
“Thanks to the federal and provincial government leadership, frontline workers including all sections of the society for playing an instrumental role for vaccinating children during the campaign. However, we need to re-double our efforts to ensure that every child is safe from this vaccine-preventable disease,” Dr. Baig added.
The Polio Programme was optimistic about controlling polio despite the complex challenges. Recent epidemiological data indicates the declining trend of polio cases and decreased detection of viruses in sewage samples signifying the programme was on track.
In 2021, the Programme has successfully completed three high-quality national campaigns and reaching more than 40 million under five-year old children with lifesaving vaccines in each round. The programme also implemented several Supplementary Immunization Campaigns.
At the end of September 2021, the polio programme has reported one case of wild polio compared to 78 cases at the same time last year. The proportion of positive environmental samples with wild poliovirus isolated has decreased significantly in the current year.