Pakistan began another nationwide polio vaccination campaign on Monday. The campaign aims to protect 45 million children from polio which is an illness caused by a virus that mainly affects nerves in the spinal cord or brain stem. This is the third polio campaign of the year and will continue until Sunday.

Ayesha Raza Farooq, the prime minister’s adviser for the polio eradication program said that the campaign is “in response to the alarming increase in polio cases.” In a statement, Farooq said, “We are re-energized in our efforts to combat polio.”

A report in AP said that during the door-to-door campaign, children younger than 5 will be vaccinated and given drops of Vitamin A supplements to enhance their immunity. Anwarul Haq, coordinator of the National Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication, also urged parents to fully cooperate with polio workers. “Polio has no cure, but it can be prevented with this readily available vaccine,” he said.

Farooq said that Pakistan has recorded 41 cases of polio across 71 districts so far this year. Most of these were reported from southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where the spread of polio has never been stopped. Data from the World Health Organization says there have been 23 confirmed cases in Afghanistan this year. That’s up from six cases in 2023.

To protect your child from polio, it is important that you get them vaccinated. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that polio vaccination has been a part of routine childhood immunisation schedules.

There are different types of polio vaccines, inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) and oral polio vaccine (OPV). IPV is the only polio vaccine that has been given in the United States since 2000. The OPV is used in other countries. In India, OPV has been used exclusively in India since 1978, however, IPV has been recently added to India’s national immunisation program. OPV is also continued.

It is important to get your child vaccinated against polio as it provides protection against the illness. It also protects your child from:

The risk of lifelong paralysis is very serious. Even children who seem to fully recover can later develop new muscle pain, weakness, or paralysis as adults. This can occur 15 to 40 years later. About 2 to 10 children out of 100 who have paralysis from polio die. This is because the virus affects the muscles that help them breathe.

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