By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The health authorities have vaccinated 15.97 million children in the first three days of a week-long national anti-polio campaign, the National Emergency Operation Center said Thursday, even as gunmen killed two police officers assigned to protect vaccination teams on the drive’s opening day.
The campaign, launched Monday, aims to inoculate about 19 million children younger than 5 across 79 high-risk districts in all four provinces and the capital territory. It is scheduled to continue through May 24, with nearly 163,000 polio workers fanning out door-to-door.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last two countries where polio remains endemic. Over the past decade, militants have killed hundreds of police officers and health workers in a sustained campaign of violence against the vaccination program and the Pakistani state.
Unidentified gunmen opened fire on security personnel guarding polio teams in Bajaur district of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday, killing two officers, a security official said. The attack came on the first full day of the synchronized national effort, which officials described as critical to reversing a recent rise in cases.
Despite the violence, teams continued working. On Thursday, the NEOC reported that the drive had reached more than 15.97 million children by the end of its third day. Provincial breakdowns showed strong numbers even in areas long considered difficult: more than 4.95 million children in 10 selected districts of Punjab; 5.38 million in 20 districts of Sindh; 3.72 million in 23 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; and 1.51 million in 25 districts of Balochistan. In the Islamabad capital territory, more than 405,000 children received the vaccine.
The NEOC described the early results as encouraging but urged parents to keep participating. “Polio is an incurable disease that can permanently disable children,” the center said in a statement. “Open your doors for polio workers and ensure your children receive polio drops.”
Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that mainly strikes children under 5. It can cause lifelong paralysis, but two drops of oral vaccine provide safe and effective protection. In much of rural Pakistan, however, deep-seated misinformation has long hampered efforts. False claims have circulated for years that the vaccine is part of a Central Intelligence Agency plot to sterilize Muslim children or otherwise harm the population.
Health workers in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, continued their rounds on Wednesday despite the fresh attack two days earlier. Shash Begum, one of the vaccinators, told AFP she and her colleagues feel fear when they hear of new violence but refuse to stop. “When we hear that a polio worker has been attacked in an area, we feel scared,” she said. “We try not to lose courage. We want every child to receive polio drops and be protected from disability.”
Naheed Akhtar, a mother who also works as a health-care provider, said she had made sure her own three children were fully vaccinated and appealed to other parents to do the same. “I request every parent to protect their children from lifelong disability,” she said.
Police officers assigned to the teams described the duty as dangerous but non-negotiable. Sajid Khan, one of those standing guard, called the work “a very difficult job” amid the surge in attacks. “Our effort is to ensure that every child receives polio drops and remains safe,” he said. “Even if our lives are at risk, we continue to serve, and we wear this uniform for them.”
Officials have not released updated case counts for the current year, but the scale of the current drive — the largest synchronized effort of its kind — underscores the urgency of reaching every remaining pocket of the virus before it can spread further. With the campaign now in its fourth day and three more days to run, authorities hope the early momentum will hold even as the threat of further attacks lingers.
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