Two more polio cases confirmed in city

Karachi
Two new polio cases were confirmed in Karachi on Monday - both reported in Gadap Town – the total number reported in the city this year reaching four and nine in the overall province.
The first case is that of 22-month old Mudassir Khanzada, a resident of UC-5 Gadap Town, whose legs have been affected by the disease. He was diagnosed positive for wild polio virus.
Gadap town health officer Dr Nusrat Ali said the child had not undergone routine immunisation, but had received four doses of oral polio vaccine during emergency vaccination drives.
He added that Mudassir is from a Pashtun family which had arrived in the city from Tank, South Waziristan. The child was born in Tank. His samples were taken in Karachi and sent to the National Institute of Health, Islamabad. “The child has already returned to Tank with his family,” Dr Ali added.
The second child diagnosed positive for polio virus is four-year-old Shayan Alam, a resident of UC-6, Surjani Town, Gadap Town.
Shayan’s right leg has been affected by the disease. He had received three routine and seven emergency doses of oral polio vaccine.
A few months ago, 32-month-old Shahab Khan, a resident of UC Sikandarabad of Keamari Town, was confirmed as suffering from polio.

Strategy against polio
The confirmation coincided with state minister for national health services Saira Afzal Tarar’s meeting with the country’s polio eradication officials and international health agencies’ representatives to chalk out a strategy to eradicate the disease from the city.
Following a warning from the International Monitoring Board of Global the Polio Eradication Initiative that Pakistan could face an outbreak of polio in the coming high transmission season, international and national authorities have joined heads to rid Karachi of the virus.
The surfacing of two more cases is a yet another setback to international and local efforts against the disease.
The Sindh government had set up a “Karachi Task Force for Polio Eradication” led by city commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui to streamline efforts against polio in efforts in the metropolis where special vaccination drives are often postponed and cancelled over inadequate security.
Comprising the additional IGP Karachi, the health secretary, the Sindh Emergency Operation Centre on Polio coordinator, the special home secretary, the provincial Expanded Programme on Immunisation manager, army focal persons, Rangers, provincial team leaders of Unicef and the WHO, deputy commissioners, health services director, and district health officers, the task force was formed on the directives if the chief secretary to address the specific challenges being faced in the polio eradication efforts in the city.
A provincial EOC official said the emergence of two new cases was extremely unfortunate as it had turned an otherwise good year to a bad one in terms of the decline in polio cases.
“It’s also very sad two children will have to live with a disability now,” he added. “Despite vaccinating children, there has been persistence of the polio virus in the environment which inevitably results in new cases.
The official said the provincial EOC had devised a new strategy to interrupt the virus circulation and the next six months were very significant in this connection.
He said the essence of this strategy was ruthless accountability, an honest reassessment of security provision and ensuring its deployment, strengthening the functionality of the provincial EOC and district polio control rooms, and boosting efforts in high-risk union councils through further involving the communities.
“The commitment to polio eradication is visible, now a Karachi task force has also been notified under the leadership of the Karachi commissioner,” he said. “We must translate this commitment into action on the ground and interrupt virus transmission.”

‘Ruthless accountability’
State Minister for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar unleashed her ire at the health officials over the polio eradication efforts in Sindh, especially in Karachi, while calling for “ruthless accountability” of officials whose “dereliction” had been causing delays in vaccination drives and missing a large number of children from getting the vaccine, thus resulting in the emergence of two more cases on Monday.
Presiding over a meeting at the Sindh Secretariat to review the polio eradication efforts in the province, especially Karachi, Tarrar termed latest postponement of emergency vaccination drive in Karachi, due to unavailability of security personnel, as a serious setback for polio eradication efforts. Unless officials involved in negligence are held accountable, she said, polio virus cannot be eradicated from Sindh.
Sindh chief secretary Muhammad Siddique Memon, prime minister’s focal person Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq, provincial health minister Jam Mehtab Dar, Chairperson of Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) in Sindh Madam Azra Fazal Pechuho, Commissioner Karachi Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, Sindh EOC coordinator Dr Usman Chachar, national EOC coordinator Dr Rana Muhammad Safdar, national technical consultant Dr Altaf Bossan, Sindh technical focal person Dr Ahmad Ali Shaikh, and team leaders of Unicef, WHO and Rotary, besides deputy commissioners also participated in the meeting.
Tarrar remarked at the meeting that improved and concerted efforts were required for curbing the spread of polio and said the federal and international agencies were there to assist the officials working in the province. She pointed out that Karachi had become a hotbed for the polio virus and if not controlled, it would cause serious setbacks to the polio eradication efforts in the entire country.
Sindh EOC coordinator Dr Usman Chachar gave a detailed presentation on challenges in polio eradication in Sindh. According to him, the four areas where efforts needed to be channelled were accountability, coordination, a realistic assessment of ensuring security and strengthening the functionalities of provincial EOC and the district polio control rooms.
“We must outperform all other parts of the country,” said Dr Chachar. “Eradication of polio from Karachi would mean eradication of polio from Pakistan.”
The prime minister’s focal person on polio eradication, Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq, said though there was an 85 percent decline from last year in the number of polio cases in the country, Karachi still remained a high-risk city and a concern for the prevalence of the virus to other areas.
She said Additional IG Karachi had promised to provide foolproof security for the anti-polio drives in the country.
Replying to a question over the arrest of parent who refused to vaccinate their children, Tarrar said it was being done to convince people to save their children from a life of disability.
Answering another question about compensation to the families of slain polio workers, she said the heirs had been compensated as per law.
Sindh health minister Jam Mehtab Dahar said the political leadership was committed to put an end to polio and other infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis and a comprehensive plan was being chalked out for the vaccination of new born children, mothers and adolescents. He said there was a dire need to take drastic action to eradicate polio from the province, especially Karachi.
He claimed provincial and federal governments were on the same page and accountability was the need of the hour.
He claimed no-go areas had been made accessible for vaccinators to administer polio drops to children.