Expanded Programme on Immunization campaign supposed to start on Jan 20 cancelled. PHOTO: AFP
Four more polio cases were reported from Pakistan on Sunday, taking the toll for the year to five. The first polio case of 2014 was reported on Friday.
The National Institute of Health, Islamabad confirmed the four cases – all from North Waziristan. According to the laboratory, the infected children – like all other cases – had not received any dose of oral polio vaccines (OPV) as the vaccination has been banned in North and South Waziristan for almost 18 month now. The explosive poliovirus outbreak in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas paralysed 65 children during the last year.
The new cases include 14-month-old Yasmin from Idak village of Mir Ali tehsil; Luqman’s 17-month-old daughter Malala from Wozi Khel village in Miranshah; eight-month-old Munaiba, also from Mirali tehsil; and Noor Samida, a 19-month-old girl from Kajeer Khel village, Mirali.
On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Peshawar the world’s largest reservoir of the poliovirus, with more than 90% of the current polio cases in the country genetically linked to the city.
“Pakistan is the only polio-endemic country in the world where polio cases rose from 2012 to 2013. As much of the population of the area moves through Peshawar, the city acts as an amplifier of the poliovirus,” the statement issued by WHO from Islamabad read.
“The prevailing security situation in Peshawar has seriously affected the quality of the polio campaign in the city and is resulting in inadequate coverage of children against the virus,” the report stated.
While efforts are being made to overcome hurdles between the vaccinators and children in other reservoirs, Peshawar and Karachi, the situation in Waziristan remains dire.
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Expanded Programme on Immunization campaign, which was supposed to begin on January 20, has been cancelled.
An official from the prime minister’s EPI cell in the province told The Express Tribune that they have to cancel the campaign because of lack of planning.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 20th, 2014.
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