Polio hiccups

The fact that the first polio case in 2009 was reported from a Punjab district earlier declared polio-free also points to possible administrative flaws in the vaccination drives.

THAT our campaign to eradicate polio continues to be an uphill task is evident by the recent confirmation of our third polio case last month. This follows a setback to our anti-polio campaign in 2008 which saw polio cases soaring nearly four times to 118 from 32 in 2007, according to WHO statistics. This record contrasts with that in 2005 when Pakistan, one of the four countries in the world where polio is still endemic, came closest to eradicating polio with only 28 reported cases, down 25 cases from 53 in 2004. This represented a commendable achievement from the year 2000 when 199 cases were reported.

Intensification of vaccination activities with measures like house-to-house vaccination, extra rounds of National Immunisation Days and the addition of Sub-National Immunisation Days appear to be responsible for the earlier downward trend. Such achievements give us reason to believe that similar success in bringing down polio cases can be duplicated and still better efforts can achieve total eradication, provided these efforts are concerted and consistent.

But polio resurgence from 2006 onwards is a worrying scenario that has raised concerns about the effectiveness of our anti-polio strategy. Last November, the ministry of health set up a new inter-ministerial oversight body for polio eradication. This week a cross-border coordination meeting with Afghanistan, another polio-endemic country, is also scheduled in Islamabad. However, effectively stemming the resurgence of polio cases would require accurate analyses of the reasons responsible for the upsurge. Some experts have blamed new unvaccinated refugees from Afghanistan for the rise in polio cases. Others have blamed ineffective vaccination drives in the camps established for the internally displaced in the NWFP from where two of the three cases in 2009 have been reported. The fact that the first polio case in 2009 was reported from a district in Punjab earlier declared polio-free and that cases from provinces other than the NWFP were reported last year may also point to possible administrative flaws in the vaccination drives. Our ability to pinpoint the exact causes of the polio resurgence and implement corrective measures will determine the outcome of our anti-polio campaign in 2009 and after.