Three more polio cases in Karachi, Kashmore, DI Khan

Polio cases continue to increase in the country, with three more cases reported in Karachi, Kashmore, and Dera Ismail Khan on Monday, taking the total number of polio cases reported in the country this year to 59.

According to a media report, an official of the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Control based in the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, said that three cases of poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) have been confirmed in Dera Ismail Khan, Karachi, and Kashmore.

The official said that ‘genetic sequencing of samples obtained from children shows that they are genetically linked to the same WPV1 virus genetic cluster’.

So far, eight polio cases have been reported in DI Khan, one of the seven polio-affected districts in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Of the 59 cases reported so far this year, 26 are from Balochistan, 16 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 15 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

The Pakistan Polio Program conducts a massive vaccination campaign every year and delivers vaccines directly to children at their doorsteps.

In addition, the Expanded Program on Immunization provides free vaccinations against 12 childhood diseases at health facilities.

The next major polio vaccination campaign is scheduled for mid-December, to reach more than 44 million children.

Because of the current polio epidemic, parents must ensure that all their children under five are vaccinated to protect them from the disease.

It is pertinent to note that an AFP report last month stated that Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world where the virus is still prevalent, while the virus affects children under the age of five and sometimes disables them for life.

Polio cases are on the rise in Pakistan, with 59 cases recorded so far this year, compared to only six in 2023 and just one in 2021.

Last month, a bomb attack on police officers guarding a polio team killed seven people, including five children, while a few days later, two police officers were shot and killed by terrorists.

In the past, religious extremists had claimed that the vaccine was adulterated with pork and alcohol, leading to a ban on the use of polio drops for Muslims.

Similarly, in 2011, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) launched a fake vaccination campaign in Pakistan to track down then-Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, which raised many doubts.

Recently, militant organizations have started targeting police officers guarding vaccine teams.

Attacks in Pakistan have increased sharply since the Taliban returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021, while Islamabad has claimed that terrorists are operating from Afghanistan.

A resident of Peshawar said: “More than half of the parents in his area were hesitant to administer the polio vaccine, considering it a conspiracy by the West”.

Some religious leaders who were against the polio vaccine in the past, who have immense influence in Pakistan, are now playing a prominent role in the campaign to convince parents.