ISLAMABAD, Oct 8: A study on the rise of polio transmission cases that has incapacitated 70 children under five with the crippling disease so far this year identifies negligence during the immunisation campaigns as the main reason.

The study conducted by the Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) suggests that 10 children of the 70 escaped supplementary doses by the immunisation teams and 38 of them were never exposed to the routine immunisation. Polio cases in the country stood at 32 in 2007 and 40 in 2006.

High-risk areas where children never received routine polio immunisation are: Mirpurkhas, Sanghar and Khairpur in Sindh; Bajaur, Nowshera and Swat in the NWFP and Pishin, Killa Abdullah and Ziarat in Balochistan.

Four cases have been reported from Islamabad.

A source privy to the report told Dawn that in most of the cases poor sanitation and lack of access to clean drinking water was the major factor in the transmission of poliomyelitis, though diarrhoea that always affected the resistance power at the time of administration of oral polio vaccine was also one of the reasons.For the “abnormal surge” of polio cases this year compared to previous years, he blamed politically affiliated district health managers who were considered to be responsible for deterioration in the quality of immunisation campaigns in some areas of Balochistan, the NWFP and Sindh.

In some cases, he said, the EDOs in the provinces of Balochistan, Sindh and the NWFP had been working for the past decade and despite their dismal performance they were not dismissed.

Similarly, four cases were reported from Mardan (NWFP) mainly due to lack of interest shown by the EDO considered to be very influential because of his connections at the right places.

In Sindh, seven EDOs were shown the doors a couple of months ago for creating hurdles in polio eradication campaigns, he said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2006-07 indicated that approximately 5.1 million children under the EPI programme were given immunisation services every year.

The survey conducted by the National Institute of Population Studies Pakistan and Macro International Inc. USA, said girls were less likely than boys to have been fully immunised against six preventable childhood diseases (44 and 50 per cent, respectively).

Children in urban areas are more likely than rural children to have completed the vaccination schedule (54 per cent and 44 per cent, respectively).

Immunisation coverage varies substantially across provinces. Provinces with the highest coverage are Punjab (53 per cent); the NWFP (47 per cent); Sindh (37 per cent) and Balochistan (35 per cent) have considerably lower levels of full immunisation coverage.