Pakistani Women Fight Against the Odds to Provide Polio Vaccine
Pakistan is amongst the few countries where polio virus is still spreading. While other countries have used vaccine and other preventive measures to get rid of this virus, Pakistan is still struggling to vaccinate children and change mindsets of people regarding this vaccine at the same time.
Recently, Polio Vaccine Drives have been happening frequently to contain the spread and eradicate the virus. For this very reason, frontline workers and their efforts must be appreciated. They go home to home in order to ensure that no child under the age of 5 remains deprived of the vaccine, no matter what the circumstances are.
From the current ongoing Polio drive, a video has been circulating on social media. The video is from a remote area of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), which seems almost inaccessible due to knee-high snow. However, the brave polio workers are still making their way to their designated areas. The objective is to make sure they give vaccines to the children and prevent the further spread of the poliovirus.
Source: The official Twitter account of the Pakistan Polio Eradication Initiative
The video hails from the north-eastern part of the AJK.
In order to reach far-fetched areas, Polio Eradication Program has joined hands with the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI). The goal is to make more and more children immune to the polio virus.
Soon after the video was uploaded, everyone started applauding the brave women who are moving ahead despite of obstacles and are dedicatedly doing their job.
Here is to hoping that we will soon be able to achieve a Polio-Free Pakistan.
The Role of Rotary International in Polio Eradication
Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years. Our goal of ridding the world of this disease is closer than ever.
As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, we’ve reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since our first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.
Rotary members have contributed more than $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease. Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by governments to contribute more than $10 billion to the effort.
Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it’s crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year.
More power to all frontline healthcare workers.
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