By Our correspondent
Anti-polio drops will be administered to every child — both those who are hospitalised as well as others who may just be accompanying their elders to see a relative at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) — during the three-day polio immunisation campaign that kicks off today (Monday).
The initiative is the brainchild of the newly-created Public Health Department of PIMS, which has chosen the phrase ‘Love Them, Protect Them, Immunise Them’ as the key message for parents, guardians, family heads, and community elders, all of who can play a critical role in protecting the health of the country’s child population.
The socio-political situation of the country makes it difficult to carry out effective outreach activities for vaccination of children against polio in the North-West part of Pakistan. As a result, therefore, the Public Health Department of PIMS has started an extensive movement to immunise maximum number of children below 5 years of age. “Every child entering the premises of PIMS, which has a vast catchments area, will be immunised against polio,” the hospital’s deputy executive director Dr. Minhaj-us-Siraj told ‘The News’.
Healthy populations have the capability to steer the nation to a healthy economy and a better living. “You have two options: be a partner or be an accomplice. You can choose, but children cannot,” remarked Dr. Minhaj, while highlighting the value of a disability-free society.
Polio mainly affects children under three years of age. There is no cure for polio: its effects are irreversible. A few drops of oral polio vaccine can prevent polio. A minimum of four doses are needed; extra doses are necessary in tropical, developing countries like Pakistan. Polio can cause paralysis in a matter of hours. It enters the brain and spinal cord and destroys the cells that cause muscles to contract. Between 10 and 20 million people alive today are paralysed as a result of polio. One in every 200 children infected with the virus becomes paralysed; any infected child can infect other children. Five to ten per cent of polio cases will die, usually from paralysis of the muscles used for breathing. Just a few vaccine drops protect a child for life from this paralysing disease.