EOC confirms new polio case in Sindh

the new case takes the total tally to nine for Sindh and 30 for Pakistan in the current year

Sindh Emergency Operation Centre for polio has confirmed one new polio case for the year 2020 in District Nuashero Feroz on Saturday.

This takes the total tally of Sindh to 9 and Pakistan to 30 for the current year.

According to a statement released by the EOC, a four-year-old girl - experiencing weakness in her facial muscles among other symptoms since February 23 in UC Lalia - contracted the polio virus.

So far the child has received seven doses of oral polio vaccine (OPV) according to parents with no inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) administered, as investigation is still in progress.

Both the National EOC and Sindh EOC have started to fight back to get polio eradication on track and reverse this trend. The first step was successful in December, followed by a case response in January and yet another campaign conducted in February.

The February campaign in Karachi achieved 97.5 per cent and over all Sindh campaigns achieved a 100 per cent administrative coverage, according to sources.

Efforts and delivery of quality campaigns over the next few months will bridge the immunity gap, seeking to achieve a significant decrease in intensity of virus transmission in second half of 2020.

Both the National and Sindh EOC(s) urged parents to ensure immunisation of their children, in routine as well as the special campaigns planned by the programme during next few months.

A failure in campaigns last year left a large immunity gap and the EOC is struggling to address it.

Last year in Peshawar, propaganda and major community resistance lead to mishaps in campaigns to address the polio threat which allowed the virus to thrive, the EOC statement read.

The statement expressed hopes to provide quality response campaigns for the current year, adding that the EOC(s) are working in emergency mode to speed up the process.