KARACHI, Sept 3: While the government is hoping to make Sindh polio-free by Dec 2005, another case of virus was confirmed very recently, taking the number of cases identified this year to 3.

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Sindh Health Minister Shabbir Ahmad Qaimkhani said that the new case of polio was identified a couple of days back in Ghotki.

According to official data, before this latest case, Sindh had two cases-one each at Larkana and Sanghar, against eight reported in Punjab, three in NWFP, two in Balochistan during the year.

The minister said that some of the reasons for the persistence of the virus in the province and country could be inadequate uptake of routine immunization by the general population, missing some population groups repeatedly during immunization days and sub-optimal sanitation.

He said that after more than 50 rounds of national immunization days, the country was at the point of delivering the final push to join the community of polio-free countries.

However, the minister mentioned that a rapid boost in the routine immunization coverage for sustainable interruption of poliovirus circulation was a must.

Mr Qaimkhani informed the newsmen that for a meaningful coordination among the provinces an inter-provincial meeting of health ministers, secretaries, director-generals of health and EDOs would be held at Karachi on Sept 6.

The main purpose is to evolve an effective and joint strategy by all the stakeholders enabling the country to become a polio-free area by the end of 2005, he added.

The minister and representatives of WHO, Unicef and senior health officials of Sindh who were present during the press conference emphasized on community participation.

It was said that a multi-sectoral approach was required to overcome the remaining challenges related to the eradication of polio.

In Sindh, which accounted for 53 per cent of the polio cases during 2004 and has brought down the figure to 19, about 6.2 million children up to the age of five, as per officials’ claim, are administered oral anti-polio drops.

Sindh Health Secretary Dr Naushad Shaikh highlighted the importance of routine immunization and said that it was one of the most important and cost-effective interventions that the health systems could provide to the poor and the most vulnerable populations.

He said that in many countries poliovirus was found again after few years of eradication due to the low coverage of immunization. We must learn lesson from the experiences of Yemen and Indonesia which were polio-free for years and where the epidemic relapsed recently due to importation of the virus from countries which were still endemic, he added.

Dr Mohammad Azmoudeh, the WHO coordinator for Polio Eradication Programme Sindh, Raana Syed, the chief of Unicef Sindh, Dr Hadi Bux Jatoi, Director-General Health, Sindh, Dr Khadim H Lakhair, the Project Director of Extended Programme for Immunization Sindh, and Dr Khalid Shaikh, the EDO Health Karachi, were also present during the conference.

Another round of polio immunization would be held from Sept 27 to 30, which would be followed by another campaign in November, it was learnt.