ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has all but eradicated the poliovirus, but the constant movement of people across the border with Afghanistan makes it impossible to completely wipe out the debilitating disease.

In a recent meeting, the country’s polio managers informed international donors that the virus is continuously travelling from Afghanistan to Pakistan and revealed that a policy would be introduced to keep track of people who came into the country.

Under the policy, those coming from Afghanistan will be vaccinated again and again to ensure the virus is eradicated.

New tracking policy to ensure repeated inoculation of Afghan visitors on the anvil

The meeting, held recently in the federal capital, was also attended by representatives of the Japanese, Canadian, German, Australian and Italian governments, along with officials from the Islamic Development Bank, KfW Development Bank, JICA, USAID, Rotary International, WHO, Unicef, the US Centre for Disease Control and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.

A participant of the meeting, who asked not to be identified, told Dawn there were three polio reservoirs in the country; Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta.

“The last polio case from Peshawar was reported in Feb 2015; in Karachi, the last case was reported in Jan 2015. But in Quetta, the latest case was reported on Dec 22, 2016. [The virus] is still active in this block,” he said.

“It is not that we have been failed to vaccinate the children of Quetta; we have made all possible efforts, but the virus is continuously travelling from Afghanistan into Pakistan. The poliovirus has been detected in Quetta, Pishin and Killa Abdullah, since people from Kandahar and Helmand usually travel here,” he said.

“We have taken up the issue with international donors and I believe they also understand the issue, since they are also supporting the anti-polio programme in Afghanistan and have access to all the relevant reports and data,” he said.

Dr Rana Safdar, who heads the National Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) in Pakistan, told Dawn that the same virus was found in the Quetta and Helmand blocks, which is known as a ‘shared transmission area’.

“We have been vaccinating children on the Pakistan side of this block, but due to security issues, the Afghan government has not been able to hold anti-polio campaigns in its territory. As many as 570,000 children are being missed in Afghanistan; they are the most common carriers of the poliovirus into Pakistan,” he said.

He confirmed that the issue was taken up with international donors.

“Along the border, there are 22 vaccination points on the Pakistani side and 20 on the Afghan side. Almost everyone crossing the border is vaccinated, but just one dose cannot eradicate the poliovirus from the human body,” he said, explaining the need for a tracking policy.

“Now, we will track those persons through their contact numbers or any other means to ensure that they are vaccinated again and again,” Dr Safdar said.

He said that immunity levels in Pakistan had improved drastically, with only 20 cases being reported in the year 2016, which was the lowest number over the past 15 years. In 2014, Pakistan reported 306 cases, while the number dropped to 54 in 2015.

According to an official statement issued after the meeting, international donors appreciated Pakistan’s gains in the fight to eradicate the deadly poliovirus and pledged to continue support to “make polio history”.

Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq, the prime minister’s focal person for polio eradication, said that Pakistan was poised to eliminate the virus in 2017.

Unicef Country Representative Angela Kearney also assured to support the programme at all levels.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2017