Pakistan, Afghanistan to carry out synchronised campaigns

Both countries to focus on people moving across the border to stop its transmission

PESHAWAR: With only three cases reported in the country thus far in 2018 and all of them concentrated in a particular region, health authorities in Pakistan and Afghanistan will be carrying out synchronised anti-polio campaigns on both sides of the Durand Line to ensure that the virus does not transmit across borders.



This is not the first time that Kabul and Islamabad will be coordinating their efforts. Some five synchronised campaigns have been carried out from January to May 2018.

A further five campaigns, scheduled to be carried out from July through December, are also expected to be synchronised, as scheduled by the Technical Advisory Group.

Synchronised campaigns see vaccination drives held on the same day in both countries with a focus on people crossing the porous border.

The step has been taken to ensure that not even a single child is left unvaccinated nor is an unvaccinated child allowed to travel across the border and hence transmit the virus, explained officials involved in the anti-polio campaigns.

They adding that there have been cases of the virus travelling from Afghanistan into Pakistan and vice versa.

“There is no doubt if every single child was vaccinated against the virus, you will be able to get rid of this menace,” a senior health official involved in anti-polio campaigns told The Express Tribune, adding, “We are in the final push and I hope this menace is rooted out in the near future.”

The official, who did not wish to be named since he was not authorised to speak to the media, said that the Peshawar-Khyber-Nangrahar and the Quetta-Kandahar blocks still posed a polio threat, adding discovery of environmental samples from Karachi and poliovirus cases in the past have established that the virus has a tendency to travel.



“This year, we have reported three cases from Balochistan and not even a single from other parts of the country. But since environmental samples have consistently tested positive for carrying poliovirus, the threat is still there,” the official said.

On the other hand, to give more time to vaccinators to prepare their campaigns, the government has decided to increase the interval between two campaigns from four to six weeks.

The time period, according to the officials involved in anti-polio campaigns, will give more time for preparedness, social mobilisation and sensitise the general public on the importance of vaccination against the crippling virus.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2018.