Islamabad, February 10 (IANS). The polio eradication campaign of the Pakistan government does not seem to be succeeding in its objective due to many reasons. Team personnel are attacked every day and many even lose their lives. Meanwhile, news has come from Lahore that two polio teams were attacked by the parents of the children in different areas.
Local media gave this information on Tuesday. Well-known newspaper Dawn quoted the police as saying that some people in Harbanspura area did not allow the polio team to administer drops and then allegedly attacked the health workers.
According to the FIR, the suspects attacked the polio workers and later called their associates, who harassed them. The police team reached the spot after the victim workers dialed the helpline.
After this the furious family members also attacked the policemen. Later, the police registered a case against him.
Similarly, Shahdara police registered a case against the parents of some children for allegedly harassing the female polio worker who had come to the area to vaccinate the children.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where wild poliovirus still has its roots. Polio workers have been frequently attacked in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
Local media reported on Monday that during the first polio campaign conducted in Pakistan in 2026, about one million children did not get vaccinated and 53,000 children did not get vaccinated. During the campaign, the highest consumption of polio drops was in Karachi. Here 58 percent children were given the dose.
Polio drops were administered to more than 4.43 crore children in Pakistan. According to Dawn’s report, two percent of children were left out of this campaign. However, considering the population of Pakistan, the number of children who did not receive polio drops is still very high.
An officer has also given the reason for this. According to him, “2,33,000 children remained deprived of it due to security issues, community exclusion and snowy areas.”
He said that of the total remaining children, 1,84,000 children from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and about 50,000 children from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) and Pakistan-occupied Gilgit Baltistan (POGB) remained inaccessible due to snowy areas and lack of campaigns.
–IANS
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