PESHAWAR: The government will launch vaccination campaign on November 18 in the areas vulnerable to vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (VDPV2), which was detected in seven children in August.

Last month, the World Health Organisation announced that wild poliovirus type 3became the third human pathogen in the history to be eradicated following smallpox and wild poliovirus type 2 as only wild poliovirus type 1 remained in circulation.

Thought to have been eliminated in 2014, it has re-emerged as four children have been infected in Diamer and one each in Torghar, Kohistan and Islamabad, prompting the authorities to launch campaign to scale up children immunity in the areas where the cases have been detected.

Talking to Dawn, Dr Rana Mohammad Safdar, the national coordinator for Polio Eradication Pakistan, appealed to all segments of the society to support the national cause for a healthy future of their generations.

Children will be vaccinated in the areas vulnerable to VDPV2 strain

“We re-assure the parents that the programme only brings the best quality vaccine available in the world to their doorstep and it is an opportunity to keep the children safe from disabilities,” he said.

The campaign was launched in Rawalpindi, Diamer and Gilgit on November 11 while children would be vaccinated in Haripur, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Battagram, Shangla, Torghar and Kohistan on Monday.

The VDPV2 was detected during August in the areas with weak routine immunisation coverage. Such outbreaks have occurred in several countries including China, Philippines, Indonesia, Nigeria, Kenya and other African countries.

Dr Safdar said that Pakistan successfully dealt with it in the past and had not detected that strain for more than two years. He added that they were determined to tackle it as well as the wild poliovirus with full force.

“We can eliminate VDPV2 outbreaks through two to three quality rounds of vaccination as the virus is not as stubborn as wild polio. Nevertheless it is an additional effort that we would strategically undertake in all areas of potential risk targeting about 2 million children during the campaign,” said Dr Safdar.

To mitigate the associated risks, Pakistan polio programme undertook extensive investigations to fully understand the characteristics of the virus and took concrete steps to protect children in the areas of virus detection, he said.

He said that immediately after detection, an injectable polio vaccine round was conducted covering more than 180,000 children to quickly boost immunity.

“The recent outbreak of P2 underscores the importance of strong surveillance systems and the need to reach children everywhere and every time with polio vaccines,” said Dr Safdar.

Vaccines remain the most cost effective tool for preventing the morbidity and mortality associated with multiple killer diseases including poliomyelitis for which the country’s polio eradication programme is coordinating closely with the expanded programme on immunisation to ensure all children receive essential vaccinations in timely manner.

Dr Safdar said that the first nationwide campaign after April would be conducted from mid-December targeting over 38 million children that would be followed by two more in first quarter of 2020.

“We will simultaneously work to improve routine immunisation coverage against 11 vaccine preventable diseases including polio across Pakistan to sustain the gains of supplemental activities. We are going all out and will make it a truly national effort by requesting all segments of society,” he said.

Pakistan has 82 confirmed polio cases of wild type 1 this year so far.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2019