ISLAMABAD: The first nationwide polio vaccination campaign of current yearstarted across the country on Monday to immunize over 39 million childrendespite harsh cold weather with continuous rainfall and snowfall on hillyareas.
According to an official of National Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), asmany as 260,000 front line workers started going door to door across allprovinces and towns to ensure more than 39 million children under the ageof five receive two drops of the vaccine to protect them against the poliovirus.
He said in 2018, 12 cases of wild polio virus have been reported in thecountry including three from Dukki district in Balochistan, one fromCharsadda, one from Lakki Marwat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one from Gadap,Karachi, one from Khyber and five cases from Bajaur tribal district ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa.
This indicated an overall 97 percent decrease in the number of annual poliocases from the highs of 306 reported in 2014.
Despite this significant achievement, the polio virus has been able to finda way for its survival, he added.
He said that during the month of December, sewage water samples collectedfrom Karachi, Peshawar, Bannu, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Killa Abdullah, Pishinand Quetta tested positive for the polio virus.
He said the genetic analysis reports from the Polio Virology Laboratory atthe National Institute of Health confirmed that the virus was able to takethe road from current hotspots within country and in Afghanistan, posingrisk for under immunized children residing elsewhere.
Prime Minister’s Focal Person on Polio Eradication, Babar Bin Atta said,“The government has a firm resolve to defeat polio virus transmission inthe country through optimum utilization of this low transmission season.”
He said, “I am short of words to praise the efforts of polio workers andhope that they will perform their best in the first campaign of this yearto fight this fatal disease, once and for all.” He said that under theumbrella of the National Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), the entire teamof the Pakistan Polio Eradication programme would strive all out to hit thevirus hard through this high-quality nationwide immunization campaign.
Considering its significance, the National EOC has deployed 50 experts tofacilitate preparedness and ground implementation of vaccination campaignactivities by the local teams in priority areas. The campaign in Pakistanis synchronized with Afghanistan to ensure vaccination of all children onthe move as well.
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The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) of the Global Polio EradicationInitiative (GPEI) reviewed Pakistan’s progress and gave recommendations forfurther improvement during the recently held technical review.
The TAG recommended that the top priority of the programme should be tofully focus on reaching still missed children in core reservoir of thepolio-virus through continued improvement of operations and capacitatingfront-line polio workers to reach and protect every missed child with thevital polio vaccine.
“We will continue the momentum and address any remaining gaps in order todefeat the polio virus. it’s very important that parents are committed toprotect their children from virus through repeated vaccinations each timedrops are offered by our dedicated polio workers during these campaigns,”the National Coordinator, National Emergency Operations Centre, PakistanPolio Eradication Initiative, Dr Rana Muhammad Safdar said.
“This is a good opportunity to stem virus circulation and developchildren’s immunity enough to fight against the attacks of polio-virus,” DrRana added.
He said polio is a highly infectious disease caused by polio-virus mainlyaffecting children under the age of five. It invades the nervous system,and could cause paralysis or even death.
He said there was no cure for polio and the vaccination was the mosteffective way to protect children from this crippling disease.
Each time a child under the age of five is vaccinated due to which theirprotection against the virus is increased.
He said repeated immunizations have protected millions of children frompolio, allowing almost all countries in the world to become polio free..
