Objective: Polio is a viral disease that may cause paralysis and infant death. Despite ongoing efforts, polio has not been eradicated from Pakistan. The purpose of this survey is to estimate the coverage of polio vaccine during National Immunization Days and to determine the factors associated with lack of immunization. Methodology: A Cross-sectional survey was conducted in Peshawar, Pakistan, from 1 st June to 9 th June 2010. Confidence level of 95% and confidence interval of 4 was used to derive the sample size (for a population more than 20,000). Parents of 600 children under 5 years were asked about immunization during NIDs of January -May 2010 (5 NIDs). Questions regarding demographics, income, education, occupation, accessibility to health centres and frequency of visits from health workers was inquired. Knowledge and views on immunization were also asked. 40 health personnel involved in immunization were also interviewed and they were asked about hurdles faced in immunization. Results: 83.7% children were vaccinated in all National Immunization Days, while 94.7% had at least, taken polio vaccine once. 5.3% had not taken polio vaccine during National Immunization Days of 2010. Main reasons for not vaccinating were; Vaccinator absent/not visiting home/vaccine not available (63.36%), no awareness (17.4%), Child ill (5.8%), family problem/mother busy (3.3%) and wrong ideas/sterility (3.3%). Many health personnel (32.5%) considered lack of awareness among people and low accessibility to vaccine as the main hurdles in immunization, besides the poor salaries and incentives. Conclusion: Polio vaccination during National Immunization Days 2010 was a partial success because some pockets of poor children and afghan refugees were poorly vaccinated. In order to eradicate polio, they must be vaccinated.

EPI Pakistan Oral polio vaccine (OPV) NIDs\SNIDs (National/Sub Immunization days) Immunization

Pakistan educational status consumer attitude public health service human controlled study Professional Competence health personnel attitude family conflict income cross-sectional study ethnic difference male urban rural difference female risk factor socioeconomics medical information child health Article mass immunization health care utilization infection prevention employment status awareness health care access oral poliomyelitis vaccine poliomyelitis immunization parental attitude health care availability attitude to health Child health survey