Karachi has its 10th case of polio, during the current year, with 12 months' old Ahmed s/o Zakir Shah confirmed to be afflicted with P1 strain of the poliovirus (wild) on Tuesday. A senior official of Expanded Program on Immunisation, Sindh, told APP that the child of Pashto speaking family, resident of Mansehra Colony, UC-5 of Landhi Town has a history of refusals.
Family of the child acknowledging that they were reluctant to get the child vaccinated said Ahmed, however, did receive two doses of the OPV as part of routine immunisation and six during special campaigns. The child was brought to a local doctor in Saddar Town with his right leg affected in July leading to relevant investigations coupled with required confirmation at National Institute of Health (Islamabad) that established him to be affected by polio wild virus.
According to available records the child, presently living in house number 1079, 23-C Mansehra Colony, had received the last OPV dose on March 25 this year. The case brings the total number of polio cases till date to 117 in the country as compared to 93 in 2013. This is the 11th case in Sindh with four children tested positive, from Gadap Town (Karachi), two from Landhi Town (Karachi), one child from Sanghar and one each again from different towns of Karachi including Baldia, SITE, North Karachi and Orangi, respectively. Doctors talking to APP said it was needed to be understood across the board that Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), made up of live attenuated virus, like many other vaccines, is not only good to create protection for the child recipients but also extremely efficient in providing herd immunity.
In reply to a question they agreed that improved basic health services are extremely crucial for polio eradication in the country. Senior researcher and paediatrician Dr Zulfiqar Bhutta has repeatedly urged the authorities to bundle polio immunisations into healthcare packages that include vaccines for other diseases such as measles and diphtheria.