KARACHI: Pakistan will launch a new polio vaccination campaign from Sept. 1 to immunize 28 million children under five across 97 high-risk districts, officials said on Thursday, warning that widespread flooding has increased the risk of virus transmission.
The National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) said the week-long drive, led by the government’s Polio Eradication Programme, will be carried out by more than 240,000 frontline health workers going door-to-door across Balochistan, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu & Kashmir, and Islamabad.
Three major rivers burst their banks this week because of heavy rain and the release of water from overflowing dams in neighboring India, causing floods that have displaced nearly 250,000 people in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Officials say more than 1 million people are affected, with crops and businesses destroyed and many unable to leave their homes.
“This polio campaign comes at a critical time,” the NEOC said in a statement. “Widespread flooding across parts of Pakistan has increased the risk of polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases spreading to previously unaffected areas.”
Officials said floodwaters and crowded conditions in displacement camps have heightened the likelihood of virus transmission, making it even more urgent to vaccinate every child under five.
