Dangerous water: Polio virus found in water samples from 5 major cities

Canal found carrying polio virus in Peshawar while samples from four other cites also test positive.

PESHAWAR: Polio virus has been found in drinking water being supplied from Warsak Dam to the residents of Peshawar and surrounding villages, reveals a report.

A World Health Organisation (WHO) report on polio in Pakistan contains the stunning revelation that water from Gulbahar Canal, which carries water from Warsak Dam to surrounding villages and Peshawar has tested positive for the polio virus.

Built during the 1960s, Warsak Dam was one of the biggest reservoirs in the country and provided drinking water not only to residents of surrounding villages, but also to the provincial capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) for years. However, the detection of the polio virus in the canal could cause a substantial increase in the number of polio cases, the report warns.

The canal once supplied water to thousands of local residents for domestic use. However, with the passage of time and rapid increase in the city’s population, especially when Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons from Mohmand and Khyber Agency set up camp near the canal, the water quality slowly went down.

WHO sources said the authorities took samples of the water from Gulbahar Canal, which flows along GT Road, and sent them to the National Institute of Health in Islamabad, where the water tested positive for the polio virus.

They said non-Sabin (wild type, which is considered dangerous) and Sabin-like (vaccine type, treatable with vaccine) viruses were found in the water and they also received confirmation of the presence of the polio virus in water samples taken from Rawalpindi, Multan, Karachi and Quetta. Only water samples from Lahore were free of the virus.

Provincial Health Department authorities once claimed to have completely eradicated polio from the region through regular campaigns, however, the claims of the authorities were disproven when Iman, an 18-month-old child, from Gulbahar was found to be infected with polio.

Official sources confirmed that Iman was living beside the Gulbahar Canal. They added that the virus present in the canal could very likely be responsible for the girl getting infected.

They also said Gulbahar Canal is the only confirmed polio virus carrier, but were quick to add that WHO authorities also wanted to take samples from other canals flowing through Peshawar.

Twenty-four cases of polio were reported in K-P in 2010, while Iman was the first confirmed polio patient this year.

A WHO official said they feared the number could increase as people residing beside the canal could be a soft target for polio viruses.

Pakistan leads the world in polio infections detected in 2010 and is the only polio-endemic country (countries where polio was never eliminated) in the world where polio cases detected annually are on the rise.

According to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, at least 144 confirmed cases of polio were detected in 2010, and eight have already been detected this year. Around 75 per cent of the polio infections in Pakistan last year were detected in K-P and neighbouring Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), with low immunisation rates there already a problem.

The Minister for States and Frontier Regions Shaukatullah, at a recent PILDAT conference on immunisation on Thursday suggested, “As long as (Frontier Crimes Regulation) is in place, it should be used to make it mandatory for parents to get their children vaccinated in Fata.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2011.