Pakistan launched a weeklong nationwide polio vaccination campaign November 27, targeting 44 million children under age 5. The vaccine was scheduled to be administered at bus stops and other transit points as well as door to door. Half of the targeted population is in Punjab, while in Sindh, a campaign workforce of more than 80,000 set out to reach over 10 million children. The campaign is targeting 7.4 million children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 2.5 million in Balochistan.
The effort comes on the heels of provincial campaigns that kicked off in late October in three of these provinces. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa—which has recorded 14 incidents of violence against polio teams this year—the five-day effort targeted 1.2 million children in the districts of Peshawar, Khyber and Hangu, registering 16,000 vaccination refusals. The campaign in Sindh reached 2.2 million children, while 780,000 received the vaccine in Balochistan. VOA; Pakistan Today; UrduPoint; PPEP; Samaa