PESHAWAR: Emergency Operations Centre, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is launching the second phase of the four-day polio campaign in harder districts after completing the first phase of the drive in relatively soft districts successfully.
The campaign started from September 1, was conducted in Dir Upper, Dir Lower, Swat, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Battagram, Torghar, Kohistan Lower, Kohistan Upper, Kolai Palas, Mardan, Mohmand, Peshawar, Khyber, Kohat and Kurram and three partial districts including Charsadda, Nowshera and Swabi.
During the campaign, 4.013 million children of the total 4.087 million target children were vaccinated. Vaccinators immunised 99 per cent children and recorded only 9,397 refusal cases during the drive.
Peshawar, the epicentre of defiant parents, remained atop of the list with 6,299 children staying unvaccinated. No incident of violence was recorded during the exercise. However, the real test of the authorities concerned is beginning today (Monday) when health worker will start vaccinating children in the districts that have always been difficult with regard to security situation.
First phase of drive records only 9,397 refusal cases
These districts included Upper Dir, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank, Dera Ismail Khan, South Waziristan Upper and Lower while partial drive will take place in Swat and Bajaur, targeting 1.4 million toddlers below five years.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reported 16 polio cases of the total 24 recorded this year so far. Six children got crippled due to poliomyelitis in Sindh and one each in Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan in 2025.
Four of the polio cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa belong to Tank, three each to Bannu, Lakki Marwat and North Waziristan while one each hails from Torghar, Dera Ismail Khan and Kohistan Lower. The main burden of the cases is seen in these districts where the campaign is taking off.
Sources privy to polio situation in these districts, say that law and order situation has been the main challenge to smooth-sailing of the campaign.
Since 2012, polio teams have been facing violent attacks by opponents of the vaccine, mostly in these districts. More than 120 persons have lost their lives and over 300 have sustained injuries in these attacks. This is the main reason that vaccinators take part in the campaign under constant threats of fear of attacks despite deployment of heavy security by the government.
“As a result, vaccinators resort to fake reporting about the coverage to escape reprisals by those considering polio vaccine against Islam or being laced with ingredients that render the recipients infertile and impotent,” say sources.
These arguments have been rejected by Islamic scholars and medical scientists in Islamic countries but these are still depriving children of vaccination, only to make them handicapped for their entire lives, they add.
Emergency Operation Centre on its part is conducting awareness sessions for media, paediatricians and religious scholars from time to time that have drastically reduced the myths surrounding the efficacy of the vaccine but still a few of the target children stay without vaccination.
Experts say that any country wanting to be declared polio-free has to vaccinate all its children three years in a row to get polio-free certificate. But in Pakistan, the vicious cycle continues as authorities inoculate more than 98 per cent children in every effort but the fewer unvaccinated children pose the threat and the disease continues to haunt toddlers, they add.
Officials say that Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah, being the head of the provincial task force on polio, has been actively pursuing district administrations to ensure that all children in their respective districts get the vaccine. “It is hoped that the campaign this time around will show positive trends,” they say.
Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2025