Laboratory findings: Gadap Town cleared of poliovirus

Environmental samples test positive in Peshawar, Quetta and Sukkur

ISLAMABAD: It is for the first time environmental samples collected from Gadap Town, Karachi have tested negative for the presence of poliovirus, while in Peshawar, Quetta and Sukkur they appeared positive.

According to official sources in the virology laboratory at the National Institute of Health (NIH), earlier the sewerage water samples collected from three points of Gadap Town persistently tested positive for the presence of poliovirus.

Meanwhile samples collected from Islamabad have also tested negative which is a positive sign, according to the official sources.

“Gadap Town always remained a source of poliovirus spread both at local and international level,” said the official sources while talking to The Express Tribune.

The sources said last year Karachi turned out to be one of the major hubs for the poliovirus circulation with 23 polio cases reported, 10 from Gadap Town alone.

According to the documents available with The Express Tribune, in the third nationwide anti-polio campaign a total of 226,016 children under the age of five were targeted in the eight union councils (UCs) of Gadap Town. Of them only 56,796 were covered. The coverage in two of the UCs in the area was reported 90%, however, in three UCs it remained between 50-69% which is a below-par performance.

While talking to The Express Tribune, Dr Rana Safdar, in-charge of the National Emergency Operation Cell, said it was a positive sign for Pakistan that the sewerage samples collected from Gadap Town have tested negative for polio as the areas always remained a big hurdle in our efforts to eradicate the disease from the country, adding that the frequent anti-polio drives and a special security plan devised for Karachi helped achieve this target.

Dr Safdar said Pakistan has come up with a strategy to access missed children in the security compromised areas like Gadap Town by utilising the services of community volunteers.

He said so far services of community volunteers were utilised in eight high-risk UCs in Gadap Town in the third nationwide anti-polio drive and they covered 38% of the population

“After a success of this idea in security compromised areas in Karachi we are planning to replicate it across the country specially in Peshawar because now our aim is to cover the missed children rather than focus on those already covered,” he said.

“We have noticed that their acceptance is more in ‘no go areas’ and they usually do not require any security cover,” he noted.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2015.