New Delhi, Feb 12 (IANS) Nearly one million children were missed and more than 53,000 families refused vaccination during Pakistan’s latest nationwide polio campaign, raising serious concerns about the effectiveness of eradication efforts, a report has said.

While health officials report that over 44 million children were vaccinated and overall coverage reached 98 per cent, experts warn that even a small gap is dangerous in a country that still carries the poliovirus, according to Dawn report.

According to campaign data, around 670,000 children were marked as ‘not available at home.’

Health specialists say this explanation is difficult to justify, as children who are not at home are usually present in public places such as schools, markets, parks or relatives’ houses.

They stress that vaccination teams should be deployed in busy public areas and that households must be revisited multiple times to ensure no child is left out.

Missed children, they argue, should be treated as a serious operational failure rather than a routine statistic, the report said.

Refusals remain another major challenge. Karachi alone accounted for about 31,000 refusals, nearly 58 per cent of the national total.

This has raised questions about the role of misinformation, weak planning, poor local governance and lack of political focus in the country’s largest city.

Public health advocates say Karachi needs a targeted, neighbourhood-level approach, stronger involvement of community leaders and stricter enforcement of vaccination laws after due process.

Security concerns also continue to disrupt campaigns in some areas. Experts insist that no child should miss vaccination because health workers feel unsafe, and that providing visible and effective security for polio teams is the state’s responsibility.

Although Pakistan has reported fewer polio cases recently and several environmental samples have tested negative, officials caution that eradication requires zero tolerance for gaps, as per the report.

Missed children, refusals and security lapses must be addressed urgently to protect every child from a preventable disease.

–IANS

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