Pakistan to use polio surveillance teams to contain coronavirus outbreak

Teams will be trained to deal with the patients of highly contagious disease, reads official handout

ISLAMABAD: In a bid to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak, the federal government has decided to use polio surveillance teams to spread awareness and identify suspected patients across the country.

The decision was made after four people tested positive of COVID-19 virus, setting off alarm bells as authorities scrambled to screen hundreds of people who recently arrived from Iran, a major new hotspot for the virus.

Two of the patients are from Karachi while the other two are from the federal territory, who are believed to have contracted the disease during their visit to Iran.

The decision was taken by the National Emergency Operation Center and a notification in this connection has been forwarded to all the authorities concerned.

According to the communique, the polio teams will be trained to deal with the cases of highly contagious disease "without compromising AFP [Acute Flaccid Paralysis] surveillance".

The trained polio teams using their expertise will hold orientation sessions at the district level to spread awareness about the mysterious disease and support the government's focal points established to deal with coronavirus cases, read the notification.



The virus has spread to more than 30 countries, killing over 2,700 and infecting at least 80,000, mostly in China.

But new outbreaks in Europe, the Middle East and in Asia have fanned fears of the contagion taking hold in poor nations that lack the healthcare infrastructure to cope.

There are also growing fears in Pakistan -- sandwiched between China and Iran, both hotspots for the disease -- over how the country would deal with the outbreak.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), which already declared the outbreak an international health emergency, has updated the global risk level to 'very high'.