One Million Children in Pakistan Left Out of Polio Vaccination Drive

Unrest and flooding affected the polio vaccination drive in Pakistan that missed out on vaccinating almost one million Pakistani children, a campaign which some parents viewed as a Western conspiracy.

Officials said almost one million Pakistani children were left out of a polio vaccination drive which ended Wednesday, as unrest and flood waters limited access, while some parents viewed the campaign as a Western 'conspiracy'.

Data obtained by AFP showed that some 998,569 children of the 32 million targeted during the three-day nationwide drive, backed by the government and World Health Organization, were left unvaccinated against the crippling disease.

Poliomyelitis - About
Polio is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. It results in paralysis and generally affects people of all age groups, children being more susceptible

Last year, a Pakistani doctor was jailed for helping the CIA track down Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden using a fake hepatitis vaccination programme, leading the Taliban to ban immunisation in some areas.

WHO Senior Coordinator for Polio Vaccination Dr. Elias Durry said the huge number of missed children was a "cause of concern".

"While we can celebrate the achievement of vaccinating millions of children during every polio campaign, finding and vaccinating the repeatedly missed children should be the top priority of all the polio teams across the country."

Immunization
Protect your child from various deadly diseases by giving the vaccinations at the right age. This tool helps you schedule the vaccinations of your child.

Government health officials said that most of the one million children remained unvaccinated because of access issues, unrest in southwestern Baluchistan province and flooding in many parts of southern Sindh province.

They added many parents in militancy-hit northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa still view immunisation as a "conspiracy."

Development Milestone
Medindia offers a milestone chart for the growing child, by which we can determine the activities of the baby at various stages of the growth.

In less turbulent areas, health workers failed to carry-out follow up visits or make enough effort to visit houses "far away".

Unknown gunmen on Tuesday killed a polio vaccinator in the Killi Jeo area of Baluchistan's capital Quetta, a day after the campaign kicked off, senior government official Tariq Mengal told AFP.

350,000 Pakistan Children in Strife After Polio Campaign Postponed
A polio immunization campaign in parts of the tribal belt has been postponed in Pakistan.

Pakistan is one of only three countries where the highly infectious crippling disease remains endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria.

There have been 30 confirmed cases of polio in Pakistan this year according to the government, 22 of them in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Source-AFP