New polio case confirmed in Sindh

Our future generations will not forgive us if we allow them to suffer from virus, says Murad

KARACHI: Another polio case was confirmed in Sindh on Saturday, taking the province's tally for last year to 25 new cases. Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah expressed his pain over the emergence of the new cases in the province.

According to the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) in Sindh, a 34-month-old boy from Mirpur Sakro in Thatta district has tested positive for the crippling disease. The boy, who has weakness in his left arm and leg, had received seven doses of the oral polio vaccine, claimed his parents, as well as routine doses and the inactivated polio vaccine.

An immunity gap

An EOC Sindh spokesperson said that the long gap in door-to-door vaccination campaigns in 2019 had left a large pool of children vulnerable to the virus. However, he added, there was still an opportunity to turn the situation around with regular immunisation drives.

"Areas with recent detections are being targeted [for immunisation] in a special response round starting from January 13," he said, adding that this would be followed up with more drives until April. "These efforts will bridge the immunity gap and hopefully lead to a significant decrease in virus transmission in the second half of 2020."

Highlighting the urgency of the matter, he said that the current risk to children was very real. "While it is our job to deliver these vaccines to your doorstep, caregivers must also step up and protect their children through vaccinations," he stressed.

CM 'pained'

In a meeting of the Provincial Task Force on Polio Eradication at the CM House on Saturday, CM Shah said that the high number of polio cases confirmed in Sindh in 2019 was painful for him.

"We must make 2020 a safe year by eradicating polio from Sindh with effective and coordinated efforts," he asserted. "Otherwise, our future generations, if allowed to suffer with it, will not forgive us."

During the meeting, which took place before the new case was reported, Shah was informed that 134 cases of polio had emerged in Pakistan during 2019, with 24 cases in Sindh. The newest case increases this number by one.

Noting that most of the cases reported were linked to the metropolis, with many of the children hailing from a few areas of the city, Shah said the provincial health department and other relevant agencies must focus on these vulnerable localities so that their environmental samples become polio-free.

Gadap, Gulshan Town, Baldia Town, SITE, Korangi, Liaquatabad and Saddar have all had positive environmental samples for polio throughout 2019. Similar positive samples were also found in Sukkur, Jacobabad, Hyderabad, Dadu and Qambar-Shahdadkot.

'Missed' children

EOC in-charge Rehan Baloch told the chief minister that the target for the anti-polio drive carried out in December 2019 had been to administer the vaccine to 9,076,523 children, including 2,293,687 in Karachi. He disclosed that 82.1 per cent of children who had not received the vaccine previously were also covered in the campaign; however, 295,704 children were still not immunised.

Shah directed Baloch to ensure that not a single child remained unvaccinated. He further told the Sindh local government minister to improve the cleanliness efforts of local bodies. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2020.