Vaccination drive planned in Pakistan, Afghanistan to curb polio

QUETTA: A simultaneous vaccination campaign will be launched on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border next month as officials blame cross-border movement for the dozen cases of the virus reported from Balochistan this year.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio is still endemic. Since January 2024, the former has reported 16 cases of poliovirus, 12 of them from Balochistan, which borders five Afghan provinces.
In a press conference on Thursday, Inamul Haq Qureshi, the Emergency Operation Centre’s Baloch­istan coordinator, said a five-day special countrywide vaccination campaign will be launched on Sept 9.
It will cover 36 districts of Balochistan, while a simultaneous campaign will be launched in Afghanistan on the same day.
He said the Pakistan authorities were in touch with their Afghan counterparts in Kanda­har for coordination over the virus situation.
Mr Qureshi said 12 children were diagnosed with poliovirus in Balochistan this year, three of whom have died, indicating that the virus is “life-threatening”.
He said the rising number of cases in Balochistan can be attributed to three factors: population movement leading to the spread of the virus, refusal by some parents to vaccinate their children, and nutritional deficiencies and weakened immunity in children.
Mr Qureshi alleged that vaccinators were forging the immunisation data to show more vaccinated children without inoculating them.
He said in Quetta division, 534 out of over 4,000 suspected workers were reportedly involved in this forgery and an investigation was initiated against them.
After the processing, 74 polio workers were found involved in the fake vaccination scandal, and they were terminated from service.
He added that Balochistan was ready to be declared a polio-free province as no case was reported for 28 months from any area before a case surfaced in February.
Sewage water samples from last year show the presence of polio virus in 17 Balochistan districts, he said, calling the current virus situation “alarming”, especially the death of three children due to the virus in the past four months.
He said the children, including a baby girl and two boys, belonged to Qila Saifullah, Quetta and Kharan.
The children had suffered from other diseases since they lost immunity after the poliovirus crippled them, the official added.
He pointed out that incomplete vaccination coverage and border area mobility were obstacles to eradicating polio.
To address these challenges, a strategy has been developed, and the media and parents are being urged to cooperate to protect children from this disease.
He mentioned that the case reported in Qila Abdullah involved a child who had migrated from Karachi and contracted the virus.
Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2024