National polio eradication drive from today

LAHORE: The national polio eradication drive will be held from September 20-24 all over the country, including Punjab, said Punjab Polio Programme head Ms Sundas Irshad said on Saturday.

"It will be a three-day campaign and two days of catch-up in general. A total of 16.88 million children under five years of age will be reached for vaccination during the campaign in the province", said the head of the programme.

During the campaign, teams will also administer vitamin-A capsules to over 19 million children. Approximately 156,000 polio workers will participate in the campaign. The Provincial Emergency Operations Centre has deployed experts from all areas to facilitate preparedness and implementation of the campaign activities by the local teams in priority areas.

All frontline polio workers have been thoroughly trained on COVID-19 SOPs, protocols, and preventive measures to be followed during household and field visits during vaccination, as well as have been fully equipped with PPEs.

“Declining trend in reported polio cases and negative environmental samples indicate a positive epidemiological outlook for polio eradication in Pakistan, and Punjab in particular,” said Ms Sundas.

“As of September, 2021 Punjab had not reported a single polio case. Only one case was reported all over the country this year, compared with 84 at the same time last year. The number of positive environmental samples has decreased,” she said.

The programme has achieved similar results in the past, having a low number of reported cases, but significant decrease in the virus found in the environment is unique,” she added. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world with circulating wild polio virus.

The polio programme head said that the current gains of the programme were fragile and could easily be reversed, especially during high transmission season when the virus was especially active. “This is the most critical time for the programme. Reaching and sustaining zero polio cases and transmission requires even greater efforts”, she cautioned. “We need to vaccinate 100 per cent of children every time to achieve population immunity and stop circulation,” she said.

To achieve this level of coverage, the people should be aware that the vaccine is beneficial and safe and the parents can trust the polio programme”, the head of the Punjab Polio Programme underscored.