ISLAMABAD, Nov 24: Pakistan’s dream of becoming a polio-free country took yet another beating this year when the government confirmed 33 polio cases across the country as compared to last year’s 24.
Over the past several years, the health ministry has been claiming that Pakistan will be free from polio this year or the other, but each time the deadline is extended on one excuse or the other.
This year the justification for the confirmation of nine more cases than last year is attributed to extensive population movement between Balochistan and southern Afghanistan. An outgoing outbreak of polio in neighbouring Afghanistan and sub-optimal performance of vaccinators in some districts of Balochistan are also cited as contributing factors. In addition, inaccessibility to children due to insecurity, cultural barriers and refusals are said to be key reasons behind the rise in polio transmission.
Even if this explanation by the health officials is to be believed, the detection of fresh cases in places like Karachi and other parts of Sindh or Punjab poses a bigger challenge.
Out of the 33 polio cases detected this year, 15 were found in north- western parts of the country, the most persistent reservoir of polio virus being the towns along the Afghan border.
After one year of being polio-free, nine cases have been confirmed in Balochistan, particularly in Quetta, Pishin, Qila Abdullah and Jafferabad. Genetic data shows that these areas have been the source of re-introduction of wild polio virus in different parts of the country, including some areas of Sindh where seven cases have been confirmed, three in Karachi, two in Sukkur and one each in Naushehro Feroz and Umerkot districts.
Only two cases have been reported from Punjab, one from Multan and other from Muzaffargarh.
No cases have been reported from the Northern Areas since 1998, Azad Kashmir since 2000 and Islamabad since 2003. India, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan are the only countries in the world where polio is still crippling children.
Globally when the campaign to weed out polio virus was launched in 1988, 1,000 children used to get affected each day in 150 countries. Today, approximately 1,500 cases are confirmed in four countries each year.
In Pakistan, polio immunisation as part of an expanded programme was initiated in 1994 with national immunisation days. Later the efforts were intensified by introducing house-to-house immunisation by trained vaccinators in 2000. Since 1997 cross-border immunisation activities with Afghanistan and Iran were conducted.
"It would be a great tragedy if Pakistan is left out from the status of a polio-free country," David L. Heymann, Special Representative to Director-General of World Health Organisation on Polio Eradication, told reporters at the health ministry on Thursday.
“It is important to completely wipe out the virus-borne disease because if the virus is still paralysing 33 children, it means 33,000 children may be the carriers who can transmit the disease through stools to those children who had not yet received polio vaccines,” Dr Heymann feared.
Federal Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan said that future immunisation campaigns would be intensified with a slogan that if one child was left out, it would mean too many.
“Religious leaders have been involved and polio vaccination stalls will be set up around mosques during the next immunisation days,” he said.
