Polio eradication (II)

KARACHI:

As a pediatrician, I was shocked to read the article titled “Polio campaign: was stoppage less dangerous than the vaccine?” (January 24) by Najma Sadeque. She is concerned about the danger from the oral polio vaccine (OPV) causing polio, at a time when the disease has been eradicated from the whole world except Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria, through OPV. It should be noted that vaccine induced polio is very rare. Its incidence is 1/750,000. Even outbreaks of vaccine-derived polio have been stopped by multiple rounds of vaccination.

Vaccine associated paralytic polio (VAPP) that the writer is so concerned about tends to occur in areas of low OPV coverage. OPV can itself protect against the related outbreak strain. So, I request the writer to not create any doubts in the minds of people who are willing to cooperate in eradicating polio from Pakistan. We already have problems with the Taliban, which has discouraged polio vaccine intake.

Let us encourage the tried and tested method of polio eradication, which is the successful administration of the OPV to all children under five years of age.

Dr Mumtaz Lakhani

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2013.