Almost 62 thousand parents refused to vaccinate their children during the nationwide polio vaccination campaign carried out from January 2 to 29, ARY has reported.
The anti-polio campaign was held in three phases during the month of January, during which 62,411 parents refused to give their kids the polio vaccine.
According to sources, Sindh is home to the majority of the parents who chose not to give their children the polio vaccine. In Sindh, 37,008 parents declined to have their children receive the polio vaccine, while in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 20,305 parents did the same.
In addition, 36 parents in Punjab, 141 households in Islamabad, and 4,902 parents in Balochistan refused to give their children the polio vaccine.
The campaign was launched after sewage samples collected in January from Lahore revealed the presence of wild poliovirus.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio has not yet been eradicated. To formally eradicate the disease, a nation must be polio-free for three consecutive years. Nigeria was declared free from wild polio in August 2020.
