Public health: Sample from Samanabad tests positive for polio
‘Next campaign to focus on mobile populations in Lahore, Rawalpindi’
No polio case has been reported in the province this year. Pakistan is among three countries in the world where polio is still endemic. PHOTO: FILE
LAHORE:
An environmental sample taken from Samanabad area has tested positive for polio virus.
The sample had been taken from a sewage drain in a drive carried out in August. It is the sixth sample that has tested positive for the virus in the province this year. Two samples each have tested positive in Rawalpindi and Faisalabad and one in Dera Ghazi Khan.
At a meeting held on Saturday to review polio immunisation strategy in view of the latest finding, the authorities concerned decided to pay special attention to mobile population groups in Lahore and Rawalpindi in the upcoming drive in the last week of September. The meeting was chaired by Emergency Operation Centre Coordinator Dr Munir Ahmed.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Health Department spokesman Akhlaq Ali Khan said an alert had been issued to the staff across the province.
He said the next campaign would be more rigorous than the earlier ones this year. He said the detection of the virus suggested that more efforts were needed to reach children missed out in earlier drives. However, he added, successive immunisation campaigns held recently should ensure that there wouldn’t be a lot of damage from the virus. “There are no reported cases of polio so far. This shows that a high level of immunity against the disease has developed among the population.
The circulating virus seems to be a low grade one,” he said.
“The report shows that the sample is not indigenous. Perhaps, it has been brought to the city by those migrating and settling here from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa or Afghanistan,” he said.
Lady Health Workers’ Association Lahore president Naureen Rizvi said that detection of virus showed that a large number of children were still out of reach.
She said the drain from where the sample had been collected passed through several densely populated neighbourhoods along Multan Road and in Babu Sabu and Sabzazar areas. “We must improve our campaign in these areas,” she said.
Rizvi said the health workers had not faced any threats in earlier campaigns in these areas.
Separately, Advisor to Chief Minister on Health Khwaja Salman Rafiq directed the staff concerned in Rawalpindi and Lahore to make extra efforts in the upcoming immunisation drives.
He said samples collected from the drain had tested positive at the National Institute of Health laboratory. He said there was an urgent need to improve immunisation efforts.
No polio case has been reported in the province this year. Pakistan is among three countries in the world where polio is still endemic. Nigeria and Afghanistan are the other two countries.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 11th, 2016.
An environmental sample taken from Samanabad area has tested positive for polio virus.
The sample had been taken from a sewage drain in a drive carried out in August. It is the sixth sample that has tested positive for the virus in the province this year. Two samples each have tested positive in Rawalpindi and Faisalabad and one in Dera Ghazi Khan.
At a meeting held on Saturday to review polio immunisation strategy in view of the latest finding, the authorities concerned decided to pay special attention to mobile population groups in Lahore and Rawalpindi in the upcoming drive in the last week of September. The meeting was chaired by Emergency Operation Centre Coordinator Dr Munir Ahmed.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Health Department spokesman Akhlaq Ali Khan said an alert had been issued to the staff across the province.
He said the next campaign would be more rigorous than the earlier ones this year. He said the detection of the virus suggested that more efforts were needed to reach children missed out in earlier drives. However, he added, successive immunisation campaigns held recently should ensure that there wouldn’t be a lot of damage from the virus. “There are no reported cases of polio so far. This shows that a high level of immunity against the disease has developed among the population.
The circulating virus seems to be a low grade one,” he said.
“The report shows that the sample is not indigenous. Perhaps, it has been brought to the city by those migrating and settling here from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa or Afghanistan,” he said.
Lady Health Workers’ Association Lahore president Naureen Rizvi said that detection of virus showed that a large number of children were still out of reach.
She said the drain from where the sample had been collected passed through several densely populated neighbourhoods along Multan Road and in Babu Sabu and Sabzazar areas. “We must improve our campaign in these areas,” she said.
Rizvi said the health workers had not faced any threats in earlier campaigns in these areas.
Separately, Advisor to Chief Minister on Health Khwaja Salman Rafiq directed the staff concerned in Rawalpindi and Lahore to make extra efforts in the upcoming immunisation drives.
He said samples collected from the drain had tested positive at the National Institute of Health laboratory. He said there was an urgent need to improve immunisation efforts.
No polio case has been reported in the province this year. Pakistan is among three countries in the world where polio is still endemic. Nigeria and Afghanistan are the other two countries.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 11th, 2016.