ISLAMABAD – The National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) for Polio Eradication on Wednesday confirmed that 53 polio cases have been detected so far from different parts of the country during this year.
According to an official of NEOC, out of total detected cases, 41 cases have been reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, five from Punjab, four from Balochistan and three from Sindh.
He added 30 cases have been reported from Bannu Division, out of which 21 were from Bannu District only.
He said the cause behind having poliovirus in both children from Bannu and Quetta was a refusal of polio vaccination by parents. He added after confirmation of the poliovirus, the parents accepted that they refused the vaccination for their children on wrong propaganda.
He said despite the significant achievements of the program, the cunning polio-virus was still surviving and find a way for its survival, therefore special immunization campaigns have been planned in all core reservoirs to kill the wild poliovirus forever.
The official said that the extensive environmental surveillance established by the Pakistan Polio Eradication Program has detected the poliovirus from the sewage of 10 cities.
He added the presence of poliovirus was confirmed in sewage samples collected from Faisalabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Sukkur, Killa Abdullah, Quetta, Dera Ismail Khan, Peshawar and South Waziristan during January 2019.
He said that considering the associated risks, the country programme has urged parents to ensure immunization of all children under the age of five years during the polio campaigns.
“Polio eradication is a delicate time race between parents and health-care workers and a deadly poliovirus. We have to collectively ensure that we reach all children with multiple doses of vaccination before this dangerous polio virus found in the sewages of these towns reach unprotected children,” the official said.
He said that the continued presence of poliovirus in the sewage of these major cities poses risks to all vulnerable and unprotected children across the country. He added poliovirus from the sewage of South-Waziristan has paralyzed a three-month-old baby in Hangu and poliovirus from the sewage of Lahore has paralyzed an eight-month child in Lahore.
He said that it is a reminder to everyone that presence of poliovirus in the sewage of these towns can cause life-long paralysis, especially if the child is not repeatedly vaccinated, in the same town or in a distant town due to the frequent population movement.
He said that polio is a highly infectious disease caused by poliovirus mainly affecting children under the age of ten years.
It invades the nervous system and can cause paralysis or even death. While there is no cure for polio, vaccination is the most effective way to protect children from this crippling disease, he added.
He said each time a child under the age of five is vaccinated, their protection against the virus is increased.
