National count for polio cases soars to 164

Officials fear the number of victims will rise

ISLAMABAD/ KARACHI: The total number of polio cases in Pakistan steadily crept up to 164 on Thursday as four cases were confirmed from Khyber Agency, North and South Waziristan and two cases in Karachi. According to officials, the number will only rise.

“We fear that we will hit 200 cases by the end of October this year,” an official associated with the polio eradication campaign said. National Manager Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) Dr Rana Safdar concurred, saying the number of polio cases is expected to rise within the next two months.

Pakistan already faces travel restrictions and its case against the restrictions is expected to be reviewed in November. On Thursday, a high-level meeting chaired by NHSRC minister Saira Afzal Tarar and attended by WHO, Unicef and USAID country heads as well as representatives of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Rotary International was held to discuss the recent surge in cases.

So far this year, 118 cases have been reported from  the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), 27 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 14 from Sindh, three from Balochistan and two from Punjab.

Rethinking strategy

Safdar admitted that a majority of plans formulated to eliminate the virus from Pakistan have not delivered the desired results. He said the health ministry plans to formulate a comprehensive plan for the low transmission season, which starts in November.  “Due to the floods, it will be difficult to carry out quality anti-polio drives across the country,” Safdar told The Express Tribune.

Efforts are also underway to form a ‘One Team under One Roof’ programme as part of an Emergency Operation Centre, which will function under the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (MNHSRC) and will be functional by next month, he said. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed to providing assistance and logistical support to set up such a programme within the EPI.

“There is a dire need to have the mechanism for data collection, not just to keep track of the cases but also for strengthening routine immunization in the country, as well as to analyse and make real-time decisions and the Emergency Operation Centre will help us to do this,” he said.

Here, separate stations will monitor 400 high-risk union councils, particularly in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), a main hub for the virus.

At Thursday’s meeting, Ayesha Reza Farooq noted that the opportunity to access children in FATA during Operation Zarb-e-Azb needs to be capitalised on.

“Pakistan has been successful in reducing the number of refusals to 0.13 per cent,” said Ban al Dhayi, Chief Communication Officer of Unicef.

However, she thinks the challenge lies in that refusals are predominantly clustered in certain areas such as Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta.

Virus spreads

Cases from Khyber Agency include an 8-month-old boy from Aka Khel village and a 13-month-old female from Faqir Kalay Gud Malang village, both in Bara Tehsil. A one-year-old boy from Kohi Pari village in North Waziristan and a 7-month-old child from Wana in South Waziristan also tested positive for the virus.

There were 51 cases of polio reported in September last year, while the year 2013 ended with a total of 93 cases. “80 per cent of the cases did not receive a single dose of the vaccine and the main challenge is to reach these children,” said Dr Elias Durry, the WHO’s country head for the Polio Eradication.

Cases from Karachi

A 10-month-old boy Hazrat Umar, a resident of Sultanabad in Karachi, tested positive for the virus, as did 22-month-old Hajira from Orangi Town’s Union Council number 7. This is the second case from this union council. Officials say both children were not given the vaccination as their families refused.

Sources claimed that Hajira passed away in hospital due to an unrelated illness, but health officials have not been able to confirm the death. Deputy project director of the EPI for Sindh Dr Durre Naz Jamal said these cases were expected due to the parents’ refusal to vaccinate and the law and order situation in these areas of the city.

“Almost all cases are from sensitive areas of the city,” Dr Jamal said. Senior officials associated with Unicef said they have considerably cut down on the campaign because of security risks after the attacks on polio eradication workers. “We’ve backed-off,” one official said, adding, “There are no-go areas in Karachi that pose a serious security risk.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2014.

Correction: An earlier version of the story mistakenly reported incorrect total number of polio cases and its breakdown. The errors are regretted.