New case: 18-month-old infected in Qilla Abdullah

QUETTA:

Reports of another polio case emerged from Qilla Abdullah district in Balochistan on Thursday.

“Polio was detected in 18-month-old Rubina in Qilla Abdullah district’s Chaman town on Thursday,” EPI Programme Balochistan Manager Dr Ishaq Panezai told The Express Tribune. “Her parents refused to have her inoculated during the routine immunisation campaign, believing it to be a Western conspiracy,” he said.

The confirmation takes the number of cases reported in the country this year so far to 244, the highest tally across the globe.

Talking to reporters, Balochistan Health Minister Rehmat Baloch said refusals are major challenge in Balochistan. “The Health department is making its utmost efforts to persuade the refusal families,” he said.

Health experts in Balochistan, however, say poor campaigns are the major reason behind the increasing number of polio cases.

“There could be hundreds of parents who had refused to administer polio drops but the anti-polio campaigners had not reported it to the authority concerned,” said a senior official of World Health Organisation (WHO).

“More than 70% parents have been persuaded by polio campaigners to administer polio drops to their children,” said Dr Jawahir Habib, Communication Specialist for UNICEF based in Quetta.

Another factor hindering eradication efforts is the delay in payments of polio workers. “We are paid after two to three months. It is difficult to afford transportation to get basic health units from where we begin campaigns,” said a lady health worker from Saryab.

Area Regional Coordinator for WHO Dr Anwar Bugti said polio would be completely eradicated from Balochistan once the National Emergency Plan is implemented in letter and spirit. He says that majority of refusals were reported from outskirts of Quetta — Kuchlak, Pashtunabad and Kharotabad.

According to the Balochistan health department, only 16% of children in the province are fully immunised against nine diseases, including polio.


Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th, 2014.