Missed — 175,000 children in year’s first polio drive

The polio situation in Karachi seems worrisome as polio virus has been found in sewage of six areas of the city, while 175,000 children were missed during the first oral polio vaccine (OPV) drive of the year.

Officials of the provincial task force for polio eradication said this on Thursday while briefing Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on the efforts to eradicate polio from the province.

The polio eradication officials informed the CM that the polio vaccination campaign was better this year compared to the past drives. They, however, maintained that the polio eradication targets were still not being achieved consistently because of a high number of children who could not be administered anti-polio drops in the drive due to refusals.

The CM was informed that in the January 2019 anti-polio drive, as many as 88,472 children could not be vaccinated as they were ‘not present at their homes’, while parents of around 86,863 children refused to get their children vaccinated.

Shah expressed his displeasure over the fact that out of a total 7.3 million children in the province, as many as 175,000 children had missed anti-polio drops. Although it was not a large percentage, he said, yet it could not be ignored. He directed the anti-polio officials not to tolerate any refusal regarding polio vaccination.

“Kindly take strict action so that nobody could dare to refuse to immunise his child. This is a Jihad for saving our future generations but individuals and schools are refusing to get children vaccinated, which is very unfortunate.”

The CM told the meeting that only a single new polio case was reported in Sindh from Karachi in 2018, which was a historic low for the province. He added that so far no new polio case had been reported in Sindh this year; however, all the six districts of Karachi had been classified as ‘districts of high risk’.

“We need to work very hard in the coming months to eradicate this menace from our soil,” the CM said. He declared that polio vaccination was mandatory at all the public and private schools, and strict action would be taken against the schools that dared to refuse to get their children vaccinated.

Shah was informed in the meeting that Pakistan and Afghanistan were the only countries in the world where polio had not been eradicated. So far in 2019, Pakistan has reported one polio case from Bajaur while another case has been reported in Afghanistan. In 2018, Pakistan reported 12 cases including six in KPTD, two in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, three in Balochistan, and one each in Sindh and Punjab.

In Sindh, all the six districts of Karachi are still classified as ‘tier 1’ which means there is a high risk of emergence of new polio cases here. The chief minister said it was a matter of concern and the government would take drastic measures with proper planning to improve the situation.

The CM was told that in Karachi, samples were being taken from 11 sites on a monthly basis to detect polio virus. In the samples taken in January, results of samples from six sites came out positive while one result was pending. From rural areas of Sindh, samples had been taken from six sites, of which results of three had been received and the sample from Sukkur was declared positive.