Anti-polio campaign ends with promising results

LAHORE:The Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) campaign which was conducted in three selected districts of Punjab ended on Tuesday with promising results, a polio programme spokesperson said in a handout released on Wednesday.

According to the data available, the polio programme has achieved more than 100 per cent coverage in the campaign, which was held in selected union councils of the three districts of Punjab, including Lahore, DG Khan and Rajanpur.

Overall 0.91 million children were administered polio vaccine in the 10-day campaign. Over 0.63 million children were administered polio vaccine in Lahore alone.

During the campaign, over 0.16 million and 0.11 million children were vaccinated in both DG Khan and Rajanpur, respectively. Implementation of the campaign is a major success, said the Punjab Polio programme head Ms Sundas Irshad in a statement.

“The success in the campaign is indebted to the polio teams who worked hard in harsh winter weather to reach and vaccinate children”, said the head of the polio programme. Acknowledging the support of parents in the campaign, Ms Irshad said that owing to their trust polio teams were able to achieve the desired vaccination coverage target.

“The high coverage in the campaign will help build immunity and protect the targeted children against the crippling virus,” she said. Since the halt in campaigns due to COVID-19 in March, Punjab has seen increased incidence of children falling prey to the polio virus. The halt deprived millions of children of the critical oral polio vaccine leaving them vulnerable to the virus.

So, the government of Punjab planned a special IPV campaign in which all children between 4-59 months were given one dose of IPV. Multiple studies have shown that IPV together with the OPV is the best combination to boost immunity. This means that not only individual children are better protected from polio virus, but also it means that they are less infectious towards other children. Punjab reported 14 polio cases in 2020. While in 2019 the provincial tally stood at 12 cases. Out of the 26 polio cases in two years, 17 were reported from Lahore, DG Khan and Rajanpur. The prevalence of polio virus has also been proven in almost all

polio environment sampling sites.