Special polio eradication campaign from April 4

A special three-day immunisation campaign would start from April 4 in 13 high risk districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa included Chitral, Swat, Peshawar, Charssdda, Nowshera, Mardan Kohat, Hangu, Karak, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank and DI Khan. The campaign would also be carried out Fata.
Speaking at the inaugural function of special three-day immunisation campaign here at Peshawar Press Club (PPC) on Saturday, Dr, Janbaz Afridi, Deputy Director, EPI, Cell, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said that 2,984,466 children under 5 years would be vaccinated including 103364 Afghan children residing in the camps. In this campaign, he said 217,142 boPV vials has been dispatched to all the districts. Total teams, constituted for the campaign are 1,4311, in which 12,924 are mobile teams, 886 fixed teams and 501 transit teams.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched in the wake of the adoption of a resolution in the 41st annual meeting of the World Health Assembly, which was attended by the Health Ministers of 166 members' states. Since the start of the global PEI in 1988 there has been a 99 present reduction of polio cases world-wide. In 1988 there were 35,000 cases per year, or approximately 1000 per day, at the end of 2009 the number had declined to 1604 cases world-wide.
Pakistan also started the implementation of global PEI programme in 1994 under the dynamic leader ship of Shaheed Mohtharma Benazir Bhutto and launched the programme in Pakistan by administering first Polio drops to her daughter Asifa Zardari Bhutto. There are only four endemic countries world-wide that have not yet interrupted indigenous transmission of WPV-Nigeria, India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The PEI is striving to reach every child through innovative vaccine technology, stronger communication and outstanding team performance.
Pakistan faces significant challenges in achieving the goal of complete polio eradication from the society. Transmission of WPV (Wild Polio Virus) is widespread throughout the country because of the inability to reach out to all children in security affected areas and the poor quality implementation of activities in other areas where children have been missed despite multiple campaigns.
Dr Janbaz Afridi said that so far in 2010 and 2011 Pakistan has reported more cases of WPV than India Nigeria and Afghanistan combined. By contrast, he said India and Nigeria and Afghanistan have made significant progress highlighting the potential to eradicate polio and controlling the transmission of polio virus.
The major factors that hamper successful control of circulation of WPV, he said are poor supervision at grassroots level, lack of active and sustained support of line departments at District and Agency level, frequent movement of population between Fata and settled districts, inaccessibility of children in areas of active conflict, lack of accountability of those responsible for the implementation of PEI, lack of awareness of the people on the importance of the immunisation.
He said that so far 78 polio cases have been confirmed in 10 countries of the world and with DRC 26, Pakistan 24, Chad 16, Nigeria 5, Angola 2 while Afghanistan, India, Cango, Niger and Gabon have one each confirmed case. He said that in Pakistan Fata has the largest number of 12, followed by Sindh 5, Balochistan 4, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 3 while Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir are polio free since 1999. During, 2010 out of 24 cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 14 were belonging to IDPs, two are Afghan refugees and five were refusals.