PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Paediatrics Association has advocated for children’s vaccination for polio eradication amid fears of experts that the nationwide cases of the disease could rise to 50 this year due to the virus’s presence in sewage water and high vaccination reluctance among people.

As the polio campaign is going to be launched on Oct 28, the Pakistan Paediatrics Association said it wanted the parents to shun propaganda against polio vaccine and get their children immunised in every round until they attain the age of five years.

“The primary reason for emergence of new cases is low vaccination coverage,” PPA Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president Prof Mohammad Hussain told Dawn.

“The real cause of polio infection is non-vaccination and non-eradication in the country. Polio is rampant yet again as cases have reached 39,” he said.

New polio drive to be launched on Oct 28

According to him, paediatricians have closely been working with the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) to ensure that all children are immunised and stay safe from being crippled by poliovirus but there were reasons for circulation of the virus posing threats to children.

“The security situation is not very good and vaccination coverage is still far behind the desired target. Vaccine hesitancy is still on the top and the influx from neighbouring Afghanistan cannot be ruled out too,” he said. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last two polio-endemic countries in the world.

Non-vaccination has been the prime cause of poliomyelitis because the virus existed in sewage water in the province and only the immunised children were protected, he said.

Fewer cases are not successful and we need to reach all children and inoculate them, he said.

“It is a statistically established fact that for every single case of polio-induced paralysis, there may be 100 to 200 non-paralytic infections, meaning only 0.5%-1% of infected individuals developparalysis,” he explained.

At the national level, we have 39 confirmed cases of paralysis and using this ratio, the total number of infected individuals could be estimated at 7800, the PPA chief said.

He said it was important to note that all infected individuals, whether or not they exhibit paralysis, shed poliovirus in their stool for up to 42 days.

“Less vaccination coverage means more cases. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has recorded five cases in 2024 with the first infection in August but vaccination is the only way to get rid of the virus,” he said.

Prof Hussain said that the routine immunization coverage, which is the foundation of disease control, was only around 70pc. Despite repeated house-to-house polio campaigns, a significant number of children do not get oral polio vaccine for different reasons, according to him.

The expert said many areas of Pakistan, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, were without campaign due to a lack of security.

He said that 385 environmental samples in the country have been detected positive.

“With this level of polio wild virus circulation and pathetic sanitary conditions, we protect our children from polio paralysis through vaccination,” he said.

Pakistan has reported 39 cases of poliovirus in the first 10 months of 2024. Of them, 20 were reported in Balochistan, 12 in Sindh, five in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each in Punjab and Islamabad.

Prof Hussain said that vaccination was the only way to safeguard children from poliovirus, which was widespread and could harm the unimmunised children.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2024