The father who refuses the polio drops ends up getting vaccinated himself

SKARDU: Assistant Commissioner Skardu (AC) persuaded a father who had refused to administer polio drops to his five-year-old son and gave the drops to both the father and the child.

According to the District Health Officer (DHO), around 38,000 children were vaccinated across the district as part of the campaign, which received remarkable cooperation from the local communities.

However, along the way, a resident of Ghanche district initially refused to let his son be vaccinated. The AC intervened, convinced the man by taking the drops himself before administering them to the child.

Officials said the gesture was meant to reassure the father that the polio vaccine was completely safe and harmless. The father later admitted his mistake, saying it was wrong of him to deny his son the polio drops.

The nationwide polio eradication campaign, which ran from October 13 to 19, involves more than 400,000 health workers going door-to-door to ensure every eligible child receives the vaccine.

The NEOC urged parents to ensure that all children under the age of five are vaccinated against polio and that routine vaccination courses for children up to 15 months are completed on time.

The total number of polio cases in the country for 2025 jumped to 29, with two cases reported on September 29 from Sindh.

Of the total 29 polio cases reported nationwide, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa tops the list with 18 cases, Sindh has nine, while Punjab and Azad Jammu and Kashmir have one each.

Pakistan is one of two polio-endemic countries in the world, along with Afghanistan. The country was close to eliminating the crippling disease in 2021, after a significant reduction in the number of cases, until the recent surge in cases.

Last year, the country reported a total of 74 cases of polio. Of these, 27 were from Balochistan, 23 from Sindh, 22 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

Polio is a crippling disease with no cure, and completing routine vaccination for all children under the age of five simply gives them high immunity against this dreaded disease.