KARACHI, Aug 23: In the 47th round of National Immunization Days (NIDs), which are going to be observed nation wide from Tuesday to Thursday, every parent should get his or her child under five vaccinated against polio.

This was stated on Monday by the project director of the Expanded Programme for Immunization (EPI), Sindh, at an informal question-and-answer session. Dr Asif Aslam of the Unicef was also present.

Naheed Jamali told journalists that the immune systems of the children who get repeated doses of polio vaccine get stronger as compared to those who do not. "So, we appeal that every child should be vaccinated during every NID until they reach the age of five," she said.

Answering a question, Ms Jamali said the target population had been reduced from 8 million in the previous NIDs to 6.2 million this time in view of the 1998 census. She said 23 cases of polio had surfaced in the country this year, of which 12 belonged to Sindh.

The chief of EPI Sindh said the names of the districts where new cases of polio had been detected were: Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Ghotki, Nawabshah, Larkana and Jacobabad. Jacobabad had reported three cases while Ghotki and Sanghar had two cases each.

The Jacobabad District at present did not have an EDO and the director-general of the health department had been asked to shift his headquarters to the district so that efforts against polio could be properly supervised there, she said.

Dr Asif Aslam of the Unicef said a couple of cases that were detected in Ghotki could have been exported from Jacobabad. He praised the health department's move to ask its director-general to move to Jacobabad.

In response to a question, Dr Aslam said the government had spent billions of rupees on routine immunization and NIDs so far. "So, let's hope that we finally get rid of this disease by the end of the year."

Answering a question, he said if polio was not banished from the country this year, the total cost accrued to the nation would be great. "I say this because not only will we continue to invest in initiatives to eradicate the disease, but we will also be paying in the shape of social costs."

Dr Aslam said the answer to the question as to why more than 50 per cent of the polio cases belonged to Sindh lay in its strong surveillance system. "Almost every case that occurs in the province is likely to be reported."

He hinted that the other provinces which had lesser number of cases might be missing cases due to weaker surveillance systems. Both Ms Jamali and Dr Aslam were of the view that the country was never before closer to eradicating polio as it is now.

They urged the journalists to help create awareness about the need to eradicate polio. They added that efforts were under way to enlist the support of teachers and religious leaders in the government's efforts against the disease which is not curable.

Meanwhile, some documents obtained by Dawn show that up to July this year, a total of 486 polio cases have been detected in the world. Nigeria, with 383 cases, is on top of the list, followed by India (25 cases), Pakistan (23 cases) and Niger (20 cases). The rest of the world has had 37 cases in all.

To date, an estimated $3 billion in external financial resources have been invested in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (1988 to 2005). In addition, it is estimated that at least $2.13 billion in volunteer time have been invested in since 1988.

According to these documents, in all 16,815 teams have been constituted to administer polio drops to about 6.2million children in the province. The number of mobile teams stands at 14,203 while 1,696 of the teams are going to be stationary. The remaining 916 teams are supposed to be temporary.