Pakistan

Three-year plan to make Pakistan polio free

2015 saw an 85% decline in the number of polio cases in the country

Sehrish Wasif October 23, 2015

2015 saw an 85% decline in the number of polio cases in the country

ISLAMABAD: The PC-1 for Polio Eradication Initiative for 2016-18 worth $311 million is ready and is set to be tabled at a Central Development Working Party (CDWP) meeting scheduled for the first week of November. After getting approved, PC-1 will be presented before the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for final endorsement.

“Efforts have been made to incorporate new interventions in the new three-year plan to combat the disease and achieve the goal of interrupting the transmission of poliovirus by 2016,” National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Coordinator Dr Rana Muhammad Safdar said.

The success

Talking to The Express Tribune regarding, Safdar said, “All new plans for polio eradication are being formulated keeping in mind past mistakes and ensuring they contain all essential interventions required to wipe out polio.”

He said while challenges still exist, many successful efforts were made in 2015 to bring down the count.

“The nationwide polio drive carried out in September showed the number of children who missed polio drops reduced to 100,000, parental refusal reduced from 3% to 0.07%, the number of infected districts decreased from 31 to 17 and the percentage of positive environment samples decreased from 34 to 20.” He nonetheless efforts needed to be doubled to ensure goals were met.

Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq said, “2015 saw an 85% decline in the number of polio cases in the country.”

Farooq added, “The programme has benefited immensely from strategies like Continuous community-protected vaccination campaigns, hujra drives and vaccination points for internally displaced persons at check posts and district and agency borders.”

Lack of awareness

Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences Childrens Hospital Head Paediatrician Dr Tabish Hazir said very few people in the country know when a child is crippled by polio, 85% children living in the same area are carriers of the virus.

“Most of these children do not get paralysed but suffer from high grade fever, flu, body pain, which parents don’t know is part of the infection,” he said.

He added two drops of polio vaccine, along with inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), was one the way to go to eradicate polio.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2015.

COMMENTS (1)

Redpill1 | 9 years ago | Reply India was Polio free in 2011. Bill Gates, The WHO and other "charity" organizations came in withe the Polio vaccine and today India is still Polio free BUT today India has over 60,000 case's of Non Polio Acute Flaccid Paralysis -- clinically indistinguishable from Polio but only COMES FROM THE VACCINE. "The National Polio Surveillance Project data show that the polio eradication programme has increased paralysis among children—from 1,005 cases yearly in 1996 to 60,992 cases in 2012, most now being classified as NPAFP instead of polio. The government does not reveal how many of these cases are due to the vaccine. It was observed in 2005 that, against 66 cases of polio caused by the wild polio virus that year, 1,645 were caused by the vaccine. As the number of polio doses given to every child has increased exponentially over the years, the number of children affected by the vaccine has climbed new heights. Data reveals that those vaccinated are 6.26 times more likely to be paralysed. Doctors investigating the affected children have expressed anguish over how these children have been ignored by the government of India and have been left to fend for themselves. Deaths from the vaccine have also been reported. Many mutated virus strains are running loose in India. In Japan, after three months of use, 16 extremely virulent strains of the vaccine viruses and 78 strains in total were found in sewage and in its rivers. India has been using the vaccine since 1978, intensively since 1997, and one cannot even imagine how many virulent strains could be circulating in this country that is devoid of basic sewerage disposal and sanitation facilities "Why are more than 60,000 children in India becoming paralysed every year? Neetu Vashisht, paediatrician at Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya, assciated with Maulana Azad Medical College, in Delhi has analysed that the cases of NPAFP in India are directly proportionate to the number of doses of OPV given, implying a relationship. Taking into consideration the normal NPAFP rate, it has been deduced that in 2011 alone, India has suffered 47,500 extra cases of paralysis. Studies have shown that death rates in children with NPAFP are twice as high as the death rate among children with polio paralysis. They have also pointed out that polio and NPAFP are clinically indistinguishable. A version of the vaccine has been illegally tested on Indian children during the eradication programme and doctors have observed and reported higher rates of paralysis due to this vaccine. The people of Pakistan should run for the hills when the WHO & Gates foundation show up in their country. These people are not your friends.

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