ISLAMABAD: Lab tests of samples have found Islamabad and Peshawar polio-free but alarmingly the virus continues to plague the sewerage waters of the major cities of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan.

A report of the National Institute of Health (NHI), which tested the samples, reveals that the campaigns to check the virus in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Hyderabad, Quetta and Jacobabad failed miserably.

Also read: Polio emergency

Multan, Faisalabad and Sukkur also emerged polio free from the tests.

But Islamabad and Peshawar test polio free

A NIH official, requesting anonymity, told Dawn that a worried World Health Organisation (WHO) had collected the samples from the cities in the later half of last month.

Peshawar emerged a pleasant surprise in the results of the tests. Only last December, WHO had declared Peshawar ‘the world’s largest reservoir for polio virus’, and samples from the city had tested ‘positive’ as recently as March.

“That spurred a ‘Sehat ka Insaf’ programme in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province,” said the NIH official. “As many as seven million doses of polio vaccine were administered to children of Peshawar, Mardan, Charsadda and Swabi in an intensive campaign.”

Sample of sewerage water from an area is the basic parameter to determine whether the polio campaign is being run well or not.

“Polio virus can be reported in any city because of frequent inter-city movement of people. But if virus is found in the sewerage water it would mean polio campaign in the area has failed,” explained the official.

“Presence of polio virus in sewerage water also shows that immunity levels have decreased in the children of the area and they are at risk of the disease,” he said.

In Islamabad, the sample was collected from the Afghan Basti sector I-11 rated vulnerable to poliovirus because its inhabitants and outside visitors overwhelmingly hail from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.

“That no virus was found meant an affective campaign was conducted in the federal capital,” said the NIH official.

Samples collected from Islamabad have been testing free of the virus for last five years, while the ‘Sehat ka Insaf’ campaign did the trick in Peshawar.

According to the NIH report, samples of sewerage water were collected from Safdarabad and Hazara Colony in Rawalpindi, Main Outfall Pump Station in Lahore, Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Gadap Town in Karachi, Tulsidas Pumping Station in Hyderabad, Jatak Village and Takhthani Bypass in Quetta, and Safdar Pumping Station in Jacobabad.

Overall, results of the latest tests showed that the authorities of the six major cities should ensure that every child is vaccinated. “Only that is how the menace of polio can be checked,” he said.

Dr Rana Safdar, National Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), promises that polio campaign will be launched in all the cities found vulnerable to the virus. “It will be ensured that quality of campaign is improved,” he told Dawn.

A meeting is being held on Thursday in the Prime Minister Polio Monitoring Cell to discuss and endorse the polio plan for the next campaigns.

“Provincial ministers and secretaries have been invited to the meeting because we want to involve the provinces in the process of decision making,” Dr Safdar said.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2014