Polio: Even as cases dwindle, awareness drives lag

50 per cent lower cases reported compared to 2010, as attitudes are changing and transformation is setting in.

PESHAWAR:

Although the number of polio cases reported this year in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and the tribal areas were more than 50% lower than in 2010, officials say that illiteracy and ignorance regarding the deadly virus remains the main hurdle in eliminating the diseases from this region.

During the past few years, polio has staged a comeback here as the region drifted into the Taliban insurgency. The Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) puts the cases reported during the current year at nine across K-P and 26 in the tribal areas.

In Fata, four cases of the NSL1-type polio were reported in Mohmand, 10 in Khyber Agency, one in Kurram, two in Orakzai, one in South Waziristan, one in Frontier Region (FR) Lakki Marwat, three in North Waziristan, three in FR Kohat and one case of NSL3 strain in Khyber Agency. In K-P, four cases have been reported in Peshawar, two in Torghar, one in Upper Dir, one in Bannu and one in Buner.

As opposed to this year’s nine, the number of registered cases stood at 19 for K-P in 2010 — a 53% decrease. Against this year’s 26, a total number of 63 polio cases were reported in the tribal areas during 2010 — a 59% decrease.

K-P’s EPI Deputy Director Dr Jan Baz Afridi says that the situation – as compared to previous years – has improved.

“The future prospect is very positive as refusal rates are coming down and people are showing interest in inoculating their children against polio,” Dr Jan Baz says.

He points out that that there is no out-of-bound area for the polio teams in K-P, though there are some areas in FATA, where inaccessibility exists due to the security situation.

He adds that Peshawar, Mardan, Charsadda and Nowshera have been declared high-risk areas for polio virus, while the government has set-up high-risk union councils in every district.

Dr Jan Baz says that this year polio cases have emerged from only five districts out of a total of 25, which indicates an improving situation.

However, he admits that ignorance and illiteracy in the region continues to pose considerable obstacles towards eliminating the disease from the region. Dr Jan Baz revealed that health authorities have started to keep track of refusal cases in the province to discourage this practice. Earlier, this month, authorities had arrested two people in Peshawar for refusing polio drops — a strategy employed to discourage refusals.

A World Health Organisation (WHO) official when approached by The Express Tribune refused to comment on the polio epidemic in the region.

National Research and Development Foundation (NRDF) Chief Coordinator Tahseenullah Khan also agrees that lack of awareness is the greatest threat to eradicating polio from the region.

Khan tells The Express Tribune that most of the cases are emerging due to ignorance among parents about polio and says that it must be overcome to create demand for polio drops.

“The security situation is also a hurdle, especially where active conflict is going on. Polio cases are being reported in majority in such areas,” he reveals.

However, he says that the situation is improving and the number of refusal cases is declining in the tribal areas and K-P alike. He says that when they started working in Bajaur some years back there were at least 1,600 refusal cases on religious grounds, while this year there were only two or three such cases.

“Some 1,600 refusals were reported from 48% of the area administered back then but now two or three refusals emerged from 98% of the administered area. This reveals that the situation is changing.”

According to him, the number of the refusals has come down to zero from 2,000 in Swat and many other regions in the province.

“This shows that attitudes are changing and transformation is setting in.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2011.