Expanded age group immunisation serving the purpose

Islamabad : Doubling the age limit of children from five to 10 years for polio vaccination in selected union councils of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi is serving the purpose satisfactorily and has helped in clearing the sewage in Islamabad from poliovirus.

We decided to double the age limit of children for polio vaccination in five union councils in Islamabad and 16 in Rawalpindi after finding poliovirus in abundance in drainage in the federal capital six months back and we had scientific evidence that children over five years of age were shedding virus, said the prime minister’s focal person on polio eradication Babar Bin Atta while talking to ‘The News’ on Sunday.

He added that in December last year, the global epidemiologists from World Health Organisation recommended Pakistan to include child population up to 10 years of age for polio vaccination in areas from where polio virus was being detected in abundance and we did so. The strategy worked well as after it we did not find polio virus in Islamabad through environmental sampling, he said.

Studies reveal that to rapidly build population immunity and interrupt transmission, the age group of individuals targeted for vaccination is expanded known as expanded age group (EAG) supplementary immunization activities (SIA) though which vaccination of age groups under 10 years, under 15 years or all ages that is the entire population is done with oral polio vaccine.

Poliomyelitis mainly affects young under immunised children but it may paralyze any age group including adults and when adults are affected, the results are found to be devastating, often with a higher mortality rate. For example, when wild polio virus re-infected the Republic of the Congo in 2010-2011, almost 400 adults were paralyzed by polio in less than six months. Almost 50 per cent of those affected died within days of contracting the virus.

Babar said they had scientific evidence that older yet healthy children were shedding poliovirus that may cause poliovirus transmission.

Investigations in India had shown that asymptomatic WPV (Wild poliovirus) infection was detected in individuals over the age of five and one to two per cent of healthy older children in infected areas excreted virus.

Since persons with decreased or no gut immunity can play an important role in spreading polio virus even if they show no symptoms of disease, in the International Travel and Health guidelines WHO recommends primary polio immunization series according to the national immunization program, or at least one dose of polio vaccine for all adults and children who are traveling to or from a polio affected area.

Since December last year, the children from five to 10 years of age have also been given polio vaccine in selective areas of the twin cities in anti-polio drives to strengthen surveillance and to check polio transmission, said Babar.