Every possible step should be taken to achieve the targets of the campaign against polio, City District Government Karachi (CDGK) District Coordination Officer (DCO) Muhammad Hussain Syed told District Task Force on Saturday.Addressing a meeting held at the Civic Centre in connection with the anti-polio drive, the DCO said that 527 teams of 5,000 health workers would go to each home to administer polio drops to children below five years of age. He said the time has come to achieve 100 percent results in polio eradication and contribute towards making Pakistan a polio-free country. Later, the DCO Karachi administered polio drops to children and performed the inauguration of the anti-polio campaign.
WHO OFFICIAL: Dr Hussain Gezairy, regional director of WHO for Eastern Mediterranean Region will visit Pakistan from May 31 to review the National Emergency Plan for Polio Eradication. Pakistan has assumed a very sensitive status in the global efforts to eradicate the polio virus as 42 children were reported, only this year, to have hit by the polio virus that cripples limbs. Ten of these children are from Balochistan, 11 from Sindh, three from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 18 from FATA. Dr Gezairy, during his visit, will not only meet the political leadership of the country but also the leaders of WHO national and provincial level polio teams to review the situation and measures being taken under National Emergency Plan.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO) figures, Pakistan was the only country in 2010 to record an increase in cases of the crippling disease — 138, up from 89 in the previous year. Polio once paralysed more than sixteen thousand children in the United States annually, a thousand children a day globally. Due to the advent of universal vaccination, the Western Hemisphere has not witnessed an indigenous polio virus infection since 1991. Yet on the other hand, polio continues to infect children in less-developed parts of the world; 1,604 were infected in 2009, and 747 cases have been reported this year. Polio remains endemic in four countries – Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan. Of these four, Pakistan has accounted for 60 percent of cases this year, and it is likely, that any road to polio eradication passes through Pakistan, especially the restive war-torn tribal areas abutting Afghanistan.
One of the biggest challenges facing polio eradication in Pakistan has been the last year’s floods in the country, which have affected up to 20 million people, in a country of nearly 180 million. These floods have displaced millions of children from their homes, making them very difficult to access for vaccinators. In a recent epidemiological survey by the WHO, half of reported polio patients were from flood-affected regions. Relief camps, now home to millions displaced from their homes, are dens of infection due to the close proximity quarters, poor sanitation conditions and a general disruption of hygienic measures. Children in these relief camps are particularly at risk for polio since polio, which, like diarrhoea, is spread by contaminated food and water.
