Vaccine fails to save Bajaur child from polio

New victim comes from an area where vaccination was not monitored by District Health Teams.

ISLAMABAD:

The National Institute of Health on Saturday confirmed another polio case in the Bajaur tribal region, raising the overall count for 2012 to a staggering 44.

This is the third polio case reported from Bajaur Agency this year. The victim is a 19-month-old child Shahzaib, son of Mirza Khan, a resident of Chinar Charmang village in Nawaga tehsil. This is the same village where a polio case (type-1) was reported on August 19 this year.

Shahzaib had received over seven doses of polio vaccine, which raises crucial questions about its effectiveness. The victim is based near the Afghan border in an area which was readily accessed by vaccination teams, but not frequented by monitoring groups of District Health Teams.

According to the Prime Minister’s Polio Monitoring and Coordination Cell Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) Surveillance Update 2012, the total number of infected districts and tribal agencies remains 26, compared to 41 during the same period last year.

The report also revealed that Bajaur Agency was covered by seven vaccination campaigns this year, all of which used a vaccine containing component against type-1 poliovirus. The Last campaign was held in September 19-21. The persistence of the virus despite frequent campaigns is worrying.

The area of the child’s residence was covered by campaign groups for four times this year, and had more than 90% coverage by finger marking in January, February, April and 77% in March.

AFP surveillance data for 2011 shows that 66% of the non polio AFP cases aged six-35 months did not receive three routine polio vaccine doses, based on parents’ recall.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2012.