Why 40,000 Karachi families refused polio vaccine

Why 40,000 Karachi families refused polio vaccine

Forty thousand Karachi families refused polio vaccines this year. In a city where the virus circulates through every district, those refusals represent the gap between Pakistan's impressive polio infrastructure and its inability to close the final mile of eradication. Pakistan has cut polio cases by more than 99.6% since 1994—from 20,000 annual cases to just 30 this year. It has built one of the world's most extensive surveillance systems: 127 e…

40,000 Karachi families refuse Polio drops, threatening eradication push

Pakistan has built one of the world’s strongest polio control systems. Yet, 40,000 families in Karachi refused polio drops this year. In a city where the virus is detected in every district, these refusals show the remaining gap in Pakistan’s push to end polio forever. The country has reduced polio cases by more than 99.6% since 1994. Cases have fallen from 20,000 a year to only 30 this year. Pakistan also runs a massive surveillance network wit…