PESHAWAR: The polio cases marked a drastic reduction in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa owing to focused immunisation campaign, better security to vaccinators and improved social mobilisation to pave the way for administration of the vaccine to those children, whose parents had refused it last year, officials said.

They claimed that there was one-third reduction in polio cases in 2015 compared to the last year. “The province has recorded 47 cases as of today in 2014, but this year we have detected only 15 polio-infected children which is a marked success,” said the officials.

According to them, Peshawar is leading with 10 cases because of the presence of poliovirus in water and frequent movement of the displaced children from Fata, where the disease is endemic.

Two polio cases were recorded in Tank and one each was reported from Lakki Marwat, Charsadda and Nowshera, officials said, adding that three of the infected children were not administered the vaccine.

Say better security to vaccinators and improved social mobilisation led to success of anti-polio drives

Improvement in quality of vaccination campaigns, accessibility to children due to enhanced security and government’s interest has led to the success.

The province had been recording an average of 45,000 children, whose parents were defying vaccination in every campaign but their number now plunged to 8,000 only, officials said.

There are fewer cases of attacks and harassment of polio workers in the province because of the coordination among police, army and health department. It has emboldened the vaccinators to visit the localities that were off-limits for them during the previous campaigns.

Pakistan, which recorded 306 cases in 2014, the highest number by any country worldwide, has registered only 38 in 2015 so far. The Zarb-i-Azb operation against the militants also enabled the authorities to immunise the children, who had been without oral polio vaccine (OPV) for the last two years.

The number of polio cases was 230 in the corresponding period last year, officials said. Frequency and severity of polio virus circulation has been reduced.

The military operation in Fata has played vital role in reduction of polio cases as only a single case has been reported from North Waziristan Agency in 2015 compared to 70 cases last year.

Officials said that 24 children were tested positive for polio in South Waziristan Agency in 2014, however, only two cases were detected in the region in 2015. The number of polio-affected children in Khyber Agency, which had confirmed 78 cases in 2014, was seven only, they said.

Protection of vaccinators by the army in Fata and police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has boosted their morale and the health workers, who were reluctant to take part in the campaign, are readily involved in the vaccination.

“The security provided by police is also one of the basic factors in improvement of vacation and reduction in cases,” sources said.

Experts said that number of polio cases naturally came down as a result of quality vaccination campaigns.

Although three people were killed in polio-related attacks in 2015 yet the number of attacks on vaccinators recorded a decrease in the wake of security by police, officials said.

Published in Dawn, October 19th , 2015

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