Polio: New case reported from Peshawar

Total number of cases in Pakistan increases to 57.

PESHAWAR: Another polio case has been reported in Peshawar after the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad confirmed the virus in an eight-month-old child. The number of polio cases reported this year across Pakistan has now increased to 57. A report issued from the Prime Minister’s Polio Monitoring and Coordination Cell on Thursday says the type-1 virus was confirmed in eight-month-old Ammar from Mohallah Beri Bagh, Yakatoot-2, making it the 26th case reported in Peshawar this year.

The report indicates that the child was given two doses of the oral polio vaccine and that the onset of paralysis began approximately a month ago on November 20.

The report adds that by June, Yakatoot-2 had 93% coverage for polio vaccination through the Short Interval Additional Doses programme, while 99% of the targeted children had received vaccines by November this year. It further says that union councils in Peshawar with below 95% coverage rate were 23 in January, which decreased to seven last month.

Cases like the one just reported indicate that there are still pockets of unvaccinated children across Peshawar district. Data for 2012 also said that 34% of the cases from children aged 6-35 months did not receive the third dose of the oral polio vaccine.

Dr Imtaiz Ali Shah, who is the technical focal person at Chief Minister’s Secretariat Polio Monitoring Cell, said that Yakatoot had been included in the list of high-risk union councils in the province.

“In the new year, we will concentrate on including two anti-polio campaigns, special campaigns for missing children and arranging drives for entire districts instead of just high-risk union councils,” he said.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Health Department decided last month to focus its anti-polio efforts on Peshawar. However, the United Nations recommended halting the anti-polio campaign last week across the country after nine vaccinators were shot dead in Karachi, Peshawar and Charsadda. The Sindh government postponed the anti-polio drive while most parts of K-P went ahead with it, apart from areas where the incidents occurred.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2012.