Balochistan: 15th polio case reported this year from Kharan district
Balochistan: 15th polio case reported this year from Kharan district
The first case of polio this year has been reported from Kharan district of Balochistan, taking the number of polio cases in the country to 15 this year.
According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), polio virus has been confirmed in a 23-month-old child from Kharan district by the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication.
Ayesha Raza Farooq, Prime Minister's Focal Person on Polio Eradication, has said that Balochistan is facing the WPV1 virus after the last year's polio vaccination campaign was disrupted.
He said that due to the interruption in the polio campaign in the province, children were deprived of polio vaccine, due to which vulnerable children are now suffering the consequences, which protects them from this disease.
The prime minister's focal person said that the polio virus has an immediate effect on children whose immunity is low and therefore we also know in which places we should not only carry out polio campaigns but routine vaccinations. I also neglected.
He said that children affected by polio were also diagnosed with malnutrition and unfortunately they died.
He said that during the last few weeks, we have been working together with the provincial teams to prepare the next polio campaign to strategize through local methods to reach children deprived of the polio vaccine and to promote polio as well as immunization. Normal rate can also be improved.
Ayesha Raza Farooq added that we have identified the weak points and are working on them before the next polio campaign, we should see progress in stopping the spread of polio virus very soon.
The Pakistan Polio Program in consultation with all provinces is implementing a comprehensive road map to prevent transmission of the virus to polio case sensitive districts in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh.
National Emergency Operations Center Coordinator Anwar Haq has said that the polio program has started preparing for the vaccination campaign in early September to rapidly increase the vaccination rate in the most affected districts.
He said that polio virus has been found in 59 districts so far, in which the most cases have been found in Balochistan and Sindh capital Quetta, Karachi.
He further said that high-risk districts are among our priorities and we are doing our best to ensure that not a single child misses out on polio vaccine during this campaign.
It should be noted that this is the first case from Kharan district of Balochistan and the 12th case from the province this year, while 2 cases have been reported from Sindh and one from Punjab.
Best
ReplyDelete