Eradicating the scourge: Government urged to exploit polio’s low season

WHO proposes six national campaigns during the first 90 days of new year.

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan has a chance of eradicating polio and making an exit from the list of polio-endemic countries during the months of January and April which is counted as a low transmission season.

This prognosis was made by members of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) during a poliomyelitis eradication meeting held on Saturday at a local hotel. The session was attended by health experts from across the globe. Participants included Unicef  regional director Karin Hulshof and global director for polio eradication at the World Health Organisation (WHO) Hamid Jafari.

According to an official working with the polio programme, WHO proposed six national polio campaigns during the first 90 days of the next year. These campaigns will aim to halt the transmission of the virus before the deadline of May 30, 2013, imposed by Global Polio Initiative Independent Monitoring Board (IMB). In this way, travel restrictions recommended by the IMB will also be lifted.

“January till April is the low transmission season for the polio virus. Therefore, this is the golden window of opportunity for the country, “said the official.

Other discussions at the session included the outbreak of the new strain of the polio virus Sabin Like (2) poliomyelitis in some areas of Balochistan, and the transfer of the virus that paralyzed two children in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It was agreed that additional rounds of the emergency response campaign will be held in Qilla Abdullah, Pishin and Quetta on December 24 and January 2.



The official said that participants also expressed concern over the large numbers of families that refuse to administer polio drops. During the recently concluded emergency campaign in response to Sabin Like (2) poliomyelitis, 10,313 families declined to give their children the drops. Similarly, in the campaigns that concluded on Friday, around 4,930 families refused to administer drops in Quetta, 3,500 in Pishin, and 2,741 in Qilla Abdullah.

The official said that hundreds of social mobilisers, union council communication officers, and district health communication support officers under COMnet were placed throughout the country in an attempt to counter this refusal. COMnet is a communication network with a workforce of over 1,600 highly paid communication officers working under Unicef.

When contacted, WHO’s polio eradication programme chief in Pakistan Dr Elias Durry said “Pakistan’s achievement on the polio eradication front during the current year puts the country on the right track to interrupt the polio virus transmission next year.”

This year, aside from Sabin Like (2) poliomyelitis, 56 polio cases have been reported so far. At this time last year, 186 cases had been reported.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2012.