Abdul Sattar
The anti-polio campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, which was scheduled to be launched on May 15th, has been suspended until May 22nd, according to the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC). The NEOC has not provided any clear reasons for the temporary halt.
The first phase of the anti-polio campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to a statement issued by the NEOC, aimed to vaccinate more than 3.5 million children under the age of five years against the polio virus.
The campaign was scheduled to be conducted in twelve districts of the province, including Nowshera, Peshawar, Swat, Bajaur, Hangu, Karak, Khyber, Kohat, Kurram, Mohmand, Orakzai, and Charsadda.
Additionally, the campaign was set to target children living in Afghan refugee camps located in Buner district, Lower Chitral, Lower Dir, Haripur, Mansehra, Malakand, Mardan, and Swabi, as well as specific union councils of Upper Chitral, Lower Chitral, Upper Dir, and Lower Dir situated on the Pak-Afghan border.
This decision to suspend the polio vaccination campaign comes on the heels of the first reported case of polio in Afghanistan this year.
According to the National Emergency Operation Center, a four-year-old child has been diagnosed with the polio virus in the Batikot area of Nangarhar, marking the first case of polio reported in Afghanistan this year and the second case of polio worldwide. The first case was reported in the Bannu district of KP earlier this year.
Syed Kamal Shah, communication officer of UNICEF, the international organization working to eradicate the polio virus in Afghanistan, stated that environmental samples taken for poliovirus had tested positive several times in Batikot.
Kamal Shah added that previous environmental samples from Lahore and Peshawar showed a genetic link to the virus from the Batikot region of Afghanistan. The movement of people between Pakistan and Afghanistan is believed to be the primary reason for the transmission of the polio virus, making it necessary to improve the polio vaccination campaign on both sides of the border to prevent the spread of the virus.
It should be noted that Pakistan and Afghanistan are currently the only two countries in the world with wild poliovirus type 1, which can cause physical disability in children under the age of five.
On May 13, Federal Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel confirmed that the polio virus was detected in an environmental sample from the Lower South Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Efforts to eradicate polio in both countries have been ongoing for years, but the challenges posed by insecurity, vaccine hesitancy, and other issues continue to hamper progress toward achieving this goal.
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