Polio eradication drive stumbles in Pakistan

Polio eradication drive in Pakistan, which was scheduled for Friday, has been postponed till Tuesday because of security concerns and lack of administrative preparedness, officials said.  The officials in the Sindh provincial government said the nationwide polio campaign was devised in two phases, Dawn newspaper  reported.  In Karachi, the first phase started on Monday and was to end on Thursday, but the officials deferred the last day of the campaign. They said the rest 49 percent of the targeted children would be vaccinated in the next phase, which has been rescheduled for Tuesday. The Dadu and Qambar districts of the province have recorded three fresh cases this year. Another confirmed polio case was reported in Sukkur.      

Over 16,000 families in Pakistan refused to vaccinate their children against polio during the first two days of the latest round of polio campaign in the country, as community opposition and Taliban threats block efforts to eradicate the crippling disease from the country.  The third three-day National Polio Campaign of 2015 started on Monday with the target to vaccinate 35.5 million children below the age of five, but 16,400 families refused to vaccinate their children.  About 6,10,333 children were missed because they were not available when vaccination teams visited their homes. Around 80, 000 teams were formed to vaccinate children at their doorsteps and over 9,000 teams were deputed at fixed centers and over 4,000 at the transit points. Pakistan is one of only three countries along with Afghanistan and Nigeria where the polio virus is still endemic.