18-month-old girl tests positive in year’s first polio case

Karachi
After a year’s respite, a polio case surfaced in the city’s Gulberg area where an 18-month-old child tested positive for the crippling virus.
The latest victim of polio was identified as Maryam Naimatullah, an 18-month-old toddler. According to the national coordinator for polio eradication in the country, Dr Rana Safdar, the child belongs to a Mehsud family hailing from North Waziristan who currently reside in UC-8 of Gulberg Town, Shafiq Colony situated near Sohrab Goth.
Safdar said the routine immunisation status of the girl was zero but she received two to three doses of the oral polio vaccine during special drives.
He revealed that the girl was one of the many refusal cases since her family hid her from health workers during routine polio vaccination drives.
Last year, as many as 23 polio cases were reported in Karachi with the last case emerging in October 2014. Since then hectic efforts by government officials working for polio eradication had been able to contain the virus for a year. However, the emergence of another polio case was an unfortunate development for the polio eradication efforts in the country and especially Karachi, said Dr Safdar.
He said the crippled child belonged to a Pashtun family of the Mehsud tribe who had migrated to Karachi from North Waziristan. He said the child was among the refusal cases since her parents hid her whenever polio workers visited their residence for administering the oral polio vaccine.
He said though no polio cases had been detected for the past year, environmental samples from Karachi were testing positive for the crippling infection. “It is especially rampant among the population which keeps moving to and fro tribal areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Karachi and their movement keeps the virus circulating in the country,” he said. “If the virus is present in the environment, it remains in search for an immune-deficient child. Whenever a malnourished child is available, it attacks and cripples the child.”
On the occasion, Dr Safdar urged the parents not to hide their children from polio vaccination teams and get them immunised whenever the volunteers and health workers knocked at their doors. He stressed the entire exercise was done to preventing their children from being affected by a permanent disability.
The coordinator of Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) Sindh also described the re-emergence of polio case as extremely unfortunate and sad.
“We worked very hard to make the situation better. Compared to the 23 cases in Karachi in 2014, we have only one case so far this year. More work needs to be done and we realise the enormity of the challenge at hand,” he said. “We are stepping up our own efforts and sweeping the affected areas. A case investigating and response has also been launched.”
He also reiterated that the child had not received any routine immunisation and was kept hidden from polio teams by the family, originally hailing from North Waziristan.
“We appeal to parents to please cooperate with the polio teams and bring children forward for vaccination so they don't get crippled for life,” he said. “This affects the entire life and future of a child and also his or her parents.”
On the other hand, lack of proper security for polio vaccination teams in some areas of the city has resulted in poor quality of coverage. Out of total 2,400 police personnel committed by the law-enforcement authorities in Karachi for the security of vaccinators, only 1,300 were available for duty.
Officials working on polio eradication said they had requested around 4,000 police personnel for providing security to the vaccinators but the Karachi police could only agree to deploying 2,400 cops.