Amid medicine shortage, polio outbreak feared in Pakistan as thousands refuse vaccination

Islamabad: Pakistan is one of the handful of countries where polio is still prevalent. A combination of poor delivery systems and superstitions arising out of religion-induced taboo is to blame for the problem. The latest anti-polio campaign in Pakistan was no different as more than 62,000 families refused to vaccinate their children. The highest number of refusals was registered in the Sindh province of Pakistan, where a total of 37,008 households refused to allow their children to take the polio vaccine. The Taliban infested province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was second on with 20,305 refusals while Islamabad recorded 141, Balochistan 4,902, and Punjab 36. The port city of Karachi – the economic nerve centre of Pakistan – also recorded a high refusal rate. While Karachi East registered a 2.4 percent rejection rate, Korangi district had a 1.2 percent denial rate. Karachi South registered 1.1 percent refusals, Keamari district had 1.3 percent, Karachi Central 1.7 percent, and Malir district 0.9 percent. In the Hyderabad district of Sindh, 0.2 percent families refused to vaccinate their children against polio. The polio vaccination campaign started in January this after wild poliovirus was found in sewage samples collected from Lahore. A report by the national polio lab at the National Institute of Health revealed on January 19 that the first sample which tested positive for polio of in 2023 was detected and was genetically related to the poliovirus discovered in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan in November last year. This was the first known instance of cross-border transmission of polio from Afghanistan to Pakistan in over a year. On January 27, a second sample was revealed which also tested positive for polio and it was genetically related to a polio virus found in the southern part of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.