Public health: ‘Vaccination campaigns can end polio’

Pakistan can face travel restrictions if situation worsens, warn speakers.

LAHORE: The world can be polio free if Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria can eliminate the disease through consistent polio campaigns, speakers at a polio awareness seminar held at a local school said on Saturday.

Heads of several government and private schools and social activists attended the seminar. Cantonment Assistant Commissioner Rao Imtiaz, Aziz Bhatti Town municipal officer Sajjid Musharraf and MNA Sheikh Rohail Asghar were also present.

“Pakistan is facing problems due to its failure to stop the spread of polio. Pakistanis intending to travel abroad can face more restrictions in future if the situation worsens,” Dr Masood Akhtar Sheikh, the General Cadre Doctors Association (GCDA) president, said.

Sheikh said that some people had expressed reservations about the repeated polio campaigns in Lahore and the adjoining areas. “These are necessary for complete polio eradication. The polio vaccine has no harmful ingredients in it. The only way to eradicate polio from Pakistan is through effective and consistent vaccination,” Sheikh said.

He said that the government was spending millions of rupees on the campaigns. “Success is not possible without citizens’ cooperation. During the upcoming anti-polio campaign, all children under the ages of five in 74 high risk union councils will be administered polio drops,” he said.

Sheikh said that during the campaign, special emphasis would be on localities where Pashtuns or nomads lived. He urged people to cooperate with polio workers, and assist them during the campaign. “For the last three months, polio virus has not been detected from the sewage samples in the city. This indicates that the virus is losing internal circulation. In another thee months, we can completely block its circulation,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2015.