October 28, 2003	Tuesday	Ramazan 1, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, Oct 27: This year, the number of polio cases in the country may surpass last year’s figures, which is being seen as a major setback to efforts for eradicating the disease.

The country has already had more polio cases during the first nine months of the year as compared to the preceding year. As many as 72 confirmed cases had been reported by September, whereas last year the number was 62. Twenty-eight cases were reported in the last three months of last year.

“This indicates that the decreasing trend of polio incidence is reversing,” a health official cautioned. “These statistics indicate that the war against the disease is still far from being won,” a doctor said. Pakistan is one of the three countries where the disease still remains endemic.

The World Health Organization hopes to wipe out polio by the year 2005.

The profiles of nine of the recently confirmed 15 cases revealed that they had received vaccination. An 18-month-old boy in Faisalabad had got 11 doses of vaccine but still got the disease, similar was the fate of a three-month-old Narowal girl who too had received vaccination.

The report shows that a five-month-old boy from Lahore developed the disease even after getting two doses. In Pakpattan, an 18-month-old girl and a four-month-old female child contracted the disease after receiving three and one doses, respectively.

Two cases of 42 months and 14 months old boys were reported in Khyber Agency, both of whom had got six and 10 doses, respectively. One case each was reported from Swat and Killa Abdullah where a 10-month-old girl with four doses and an eighteen-month-old boy with six doses fell victim to the disease. Doctors believe this may be the outcome of reduction in the quality of mass vaccination programmes.

However, other circles believe that the victims could have been having lesser resistance as compared to other children. A doctor said the immunity in children was boosted when they received multiple vaccine doses, whereas children who were missed out become increasingly vulnerable though they may have been vaccinated on previous occasions.

He accentuated the rationale behind repeated dose administration of oral polio vaccine for prevention of the disease.

Other medical circles doubt the authenticity of the record and say the victims may never have been actually vaccinated. Dr Mohammad Wasim, however, questioned the efficacy of the vaccine and the mechanism for monitoring its quality in the country till its dispensation. He warned that this campaign can never succeed without the involvement of the general practitioners who cater to the healthcare of 70 per cent of the population.

Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that mainly affects children under five years of age. It invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a few hours.

The virus enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in the intestine. Initial symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting and stiffness in the neck, and pain in the limbs.