KARACHI: The recent confirmation of polio virus in two siblings despite their vaccination during routine anti-polio drives and half a dozen additional boosters in special campaigns has raised serious questions over the very efficacy of the vaccine.

Officials conveniently put the blame on lack of immunity among the siblings for the crippling disease despite being inoculated and said it might have been caused by malnutrition or some other genetic reasons.

But a senior official in the provincial health ministry admitted that such incidents raised many questions over the very efficacy of the vaccine and the cold chain system, which had been reported not up to the mark by the authorities from time to time.

“Such incidents should lead us to soul-searching and we should examine everything anew to prevent recurrence of the disease in future,” he said on the condition of anonymity.

The provincial government is already in a fix as to how to counter the detractors of the vaccine when even some vaccinated children could not be saved from the dangers of the crippling disease.

The latest victims of the disease were three children, including the two siblings, who came to fore over the past two days bringing the tally to 19 with two cases reported from the rest of Sindh. The country’s contribution to the disease is already a staggering 220 in the tenth month of the year.

Meanwhile, officials in the expanded programme on immunisation (EPI) of Sindh, said they had received two ‘good’ communications from the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, which cleared of polio the two children – both aged 18 months – from Karachi’s Jamshed Town and Orangi Town.

“This means, it is highly unlikely that Karachi will report another polio case till mid of November,” said an official adding that no more stool samples of Karachi children had been with the NIH, which had been sent to it at least three weeks ago.

Over 700,000 children vaccinated

Health authorities on Saturday said a special week-long polio eradication campaign to target more than 700,000 children in 75 union councils of the metropolis ended with ‘heartening results’.

“The polio campaign launched to target 75 UCs of the city with special emphasis on those areas where children may have missed out previous campaigns has successfully been concluded,” said Karachi health director Dr Zafar Ijaz.

The officials split the campaign in two episodes because of security arrangements provided at a given time in parts of the city.

In the first phase, they covered 33 UCs and targeted 326,000 children. In the second phase the remaining 388,000 children residing in the remaining 42 union councils were targeted.

“The polio campaign was a success,” said Dr Ijaz, adding that the volunteers had ‘adequate’ security cover by the police during the special drives.

“We are fully committed to eradicating this disease, which has already affected many innocent lives in our country,” Dr Ijaz added.

Another official, however, said during the polio campaigns they encountered several refusals again — mostly in Pakhtun localities.

Besides, they added, the provision of police security remained a huge issue for the volunteers. On many occasions, they had to stay for many hours for the police to go to the targeted areas.

“What is more frustrating for us is the fact that on most occasions police guards come to us in the afternoon when many precious hours have already been wasted,” said the official.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2014