Six-year-old in Badin diagnosed with polio

EOC official says virus moving to areas where low

immunity caused by malnutrition is common

Pakistan’s polio eradication efforts faced another setback on Wednesday when a child in Sindh’s Badin district was tested positive for the disease, taking the number of cases reported this year in the province to eight and in the country overall to 19.

A spokesperson for the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) Sindh said six-year old Imran Javed in Badin had tested positive for polio and an investigation was under way.

He added that it was the third polio case reported in the coastal belt of Sindh during the last two months.

Two polio cases, one in Sajawal and the other in Badin, were reported last month – a huge setback to the country’s polio eradication efforts. However, EOC Sindh officials had maintained that these were “last-ditch efforts by the polio virus which was now moving to areas where immunity among children was very low”.

A country can only be declared polio-free if no polio case is reported for at least three consecutive years. In Pakistan’s case, this seems to be an uphill task as despite a drastic decrease in the number of cases as compared to previous years, a total of 19 cases have been reported in different parts of the country this year.

Polio eradication officials are carrying out extensive vaccination drives in the country but they have failed to wipe out the disease.

The rate of routine immunisation of children is extremely low in Sindh’s rural districts and coupled with low immunity because of malnutrition, the problem grows worse.

“We have carried out three vaccination campaigns in the Sajawal and Badin belt in the last two months and another campaign will start there from December 19 in response to the virus surfacing there. This should close virus circulation down in that region,” EOC Sindh coordinator Fayaz Jatoi told The News.

He added that they had captured the virus “by its neck” and now were concentrating on areas which were considered non high-risk.

“The job needs to be finished by securing the entire coastal belt in the province immediately.”

The official said when polio is about to be eradicated, the virus fights for its survival and travels to areas where you least expect it and that was the case in Badin.

“It will also attack children suffering from malnutrition and low immunity.”

‘Major progress’

Jatoi maintained that Sindh had made major progress in stopping polio transmission.

“In the past year, there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of cases and virus circulation. The environmental samples are now clear in Sindh and it shows the progress we have made.”

 The official said Karachi and northern Sindh were the high-risk areas for polio and the virus circulation there had been stopped. “The virus, which is now fighting for its survival, will go to places it traditionally doesn’t and there we will close it down,” he added.

In the anti-polio campaign that will start from the December 19 across Sindh and carry on for six days, 8.3 million children will be vaccinated.

The official said of these 8.3 million children, 2.3 million were under the age of five.

He added that 96 percent children were vaccinated in recent campaign in Karachi and that was a positive sign.

“The programme is moving in the right direction and it has been appreciated by international partners. If we continue like this, there is no doubt we will rid ourselves of polio.”