More than five million people are walking due to polio eradication campaigns since 1988 and 20 million volunteers participated in Polio National Immunisation Campaigns. If funds are not provided and polio is not eradicated in next four decades, then four million people will die due to polio diseases, which affects muscles and paralysis body of children under five year of age.
Polio has been eradicated in most of the continents and only four countries are endemic where poliovirus is circulating, which includes India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. Visits to EPI vaccination centre can protect from eight infectious diseases, including polio.
This was stated in Public Health Seminar on the polio eradication in Pakistan held at Latif Auditorium of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) on Thursday, which was presided by Professor Azam Hussain Yousfani Director Academic LUMHS on behalf of Vice Chancellor Professor Noshad A. Shaikh.
The seminar was jointly organised by Department of Community Medicine and Public Health Seminar Committee. The main thrust of this presentation was that routine vaccination of EPI vaccines and polio eradication National Immunisation Days (NIDS) campaign must work hand in hand. 97 percent routine immunisation and six rounds of polio NIDS campaign will end polio by 2010 from Pakistan.
Professor Rafique Ahmed Soomro in his presentation titled "Overview of polio eradication in Pakistan" mentioned that LUMHS Department of Community Medicine since it was medical college in 1995 till 2009 has been participating in various activities of polio eradication and students were sent to give polio drops in Jamshoro and Hyderabad districts in collaboration with director general health Sindh and EDO health Jamshoro and Sindh health department.
Through his data he mentioned that Afghanistan border is porous and main cause of spread of poliovirus cases in Pakistan. Polio spread through ingestion route ie, through water or food consumption.
Dr Yehia Mustafa in his presentation titled "WHO role in polio eradication in Sindh" said that 40,000 people have refused to allow polio drops to be given to their children when polio house to house campaign teams reached there. He said Qambar in upper Sindh and Karachi in south have high reservoir of polio virus due to mix and migrating population and low immunisation EPI routine coverage.
Comments
Comments are closed.