Pakistan’s first polio case in 2016 reported in city

34-month-old boy in Gadap Town diagnosed positive for disease

Karachi

The provincial health authorities confirmed on Monday that a 34-month-old boy living in Gadap Town had been diagnosed with polio, the first case of the disease reported this year in the country.

The National Institute of Health, Islamabad tested the samples and confirmed that Aijaz Khan, s/o Sher Ali Khan, a resident of UC-7 in Yousuf Goth, Gadap Town, was suffering from polio.

A spokesperson for the Sindh Emergency Operations Centre for Polio said the boy, who belonged to a Pashtun family, had not undergone routine immunisation, but was administered at least seven doses of oral polio vaccine drops during special drives.

Last year, 54 children were diagnosed with polio in the country, 12 of them in Sindh including seven in Karachi alone.

“Malnourishment, frequent infections and the humid climate of an area can weaken some children’s immune system and they are infected by the polio virus despite having been administered multiple doses of OPV, EOC Islamabad central coordinator Rana Muhammad Safdar told The News

He added that children living in Gadap and other slums were extremely vulnerable because of malnourishment, frequent chest and abdominal infections and humid climate of the city.

These children require over 10 doses of polio vaccine to boost their immunity to a level where can’t be affected by the polio virus.”

Polio eradication officials are planning to conduct injectable polio vaccine drives in certain areas of Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar by the end of March this year so that the immunity of children with these complications could be boosted.

They added that this problem was faced by India and Bangladesh too as despite reaching every child and administering multiple doses of polio vaccine to them, polio cases kept surfacing in the two countries for quite some time.

“Our message to parents is to have their children vaccinated whenever a team visits their home or they can have the drops administered themselves at a clinic,” Safdar said.

Following the emergence of case, Karachi commissioner Asif Hyder Shah held an urgent meeting with clerics of different sects and asked them to use their influence to convince parents to have their children vaccinated against polio.

The Karachi commissioner is also the chief of the Karachi Task Force for Polio Eradication. The challenges faced by vaccinators include parents’ refusal to have their children vaccinated, children missed during vaccination drives, the security of vaccinators and the malnourishment and immunity issues among a vast majority of children under five.

Clerics voice support

Religious scholars hailing from multiple schools of thought assured their support in the cause to eradicate polio from the city in a meeting with Commissioner Syed Asif Hyder on Monday, adds APP.

Terming it a religious obligation, the commissioner called for concentrated efforts for administration of the oral polio vaccine (OPV), particularly in light of the year’s first case having been confirmed in the city.

The scholars in attendance also voiced their support for measures which could safeguard future generations from the polio virus, and finally help Pakistan eradicate the disease. 

The clerics and scholars who met the commissioner included Maulana Omer Sadiq, Allama Zubair Usmani, Mehmood Mohammad Tariq, Mahmood Madni, Mufti Syed Hasan Ahmed, Ikramullah Khan, Ahmedur Rehman, Dr Fasihuddin Suri, Dr Nisar A Kundi and Professor Dr Shahbaz.

It was also agreed that total eradication of polio will also help in building a better image of the country globally, hence, needed to be given the attention it deserved. 

Talking about the necessary steps to ensure successful OPV campaigns in the city, the matter of addressing sensitive union councils (UCs) along with general areas was discussed, to which the scholars pledged to play their role in convincing the concerned inhabitants about the perils of the disease. 

It was also decided that the next meeting of the National Islamic Advisory Group will be held in Karachi.