Polio Case in Lahore While Zardari receives Polio Eradication Champion Award
A polio case has been detected in Lahore in Eighteen-month-old Sana. She has been diagnosed with type P1 of the virus that has affected her left leg. The girl had not received any dose of vaccine since her birth, according to her father, Amir Ahmad.
Pakistan has reported 20 cases in 2009 – 13 type 1 cases and seven type 3. Eight polio cases have been reported from all over the Punjab this year – one each from Sialkot, Rajanpur, Toba Tek Singh, Bahawalpur and three from Multan.
Pakistan’s inclusion in the 20 Polio endemic countries of the world makes it an important polio reservoir according to Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS).
It has been reported in Feb, 2007 that the parents of 24,000 children in northern Pakistan refused to allow health workers to administer polio vaccinations last month, mostly due to rumors that the harmless vaccine was an American plot to sterilize innocent Muslim children.
The disinformation – spread by extremist clerics using mosque loudspeakers and illegal radio stations and by word of mouth – has caused a sharp jump in polio cases in Pakistan and hit global efforts to eradicate the debilitating disease.
History of Polio Eradication in Pakistan
- Began in 1994 with the first pair of the National Immunization Days
- AFP (Acute Flaccid Paralysis) Surveillance system was established in 2000
- Door-to-door strategy adopted in 2001
- Increased number of rounds since 2002
Since the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988 the number of reported cases worldwide has fallen from 350,000 to 1,968 – a decrease of over 99%. Today it remains endemic in four countries:Nigeria, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 1988 affected countries numbered 125. While there remains no cure for polio the progress towards its eradication is due to widespread use of polio vaccines. By 2002 the WHO had certified 124 countries polio-free.
More than 2 billion children have been immunised against the disease since 1988. The WHO estimates that because of the initiative five million fewer people have been paralysed by the disease. (WHO)
Such a huge and more than a decade old campaign had faced opposition from many in the country for which they are paying the price in the form of lives of their children like Sana. A legislation should be done against parents who did not allow the polio teams to vaccinate their child. It is a crime indeed to play with your own child’s life. The detection of yet another unvaccinated polio case from the heart of Lahore city has inflicted a huge blow to the claims of health officials and polio control authorities alike.
This news has come at a time when President Asif Ali Zardari has been presented with the Polio Eradication Champion Award by Rotary International to honor his contribution to the polio eradication effort and his country’s dedication to a polio-free world.
The award, presented by Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee Chair Robert Scott, was established in 1995 and is the highest award Rotary awards to honor heads of state, health agency leaders and others who have made significant contributions toward polio eradication.
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The news that President Asif Ali Zardari has been presented with the Polio Eradication Champion Award by Rotary International to honor his contribution to the polio eradication effort and his country’s dedication to a polio-free world are to be welcomed. It is Zardari who is enabling Pakistan to get rid of many shocks, miseries, traumas, menaces. For example Zardari has also enabled Pakistan to get rid of Swati terrorist and Waziristan terrorist trauma; Zardari has also enabled Pakistan to get rid of politics of confrontation and introduced culture of reconciliation politics and coalitions governments at federal and provincial level. Now if still any fresh case of polio is revealed in polio free country as being claimed by health agencies then this negligence is on part of parents or guardians of that child and not on part of Zardari and PPP because PPP government always launches full fledge campaign for polio vaccination to be provided to children at door steps.
[...] Polio Case in Lahore While Zardari receives Polio Eradication … [...]
The Polio free Pakistan is one of the aim of PPP goverment. The first lauch of Polio eradication was lauch in 1994 by the Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto Shaheed and from 1996 to 2009 means after from 14 years PPP get in power and last year PTV done online campiegn of Polio-Eridcation, I want to say that PPP goverment is really doing good job for make our country polio free however with increasing population suddenlly eridaction of any dieases is impossible….so criticizing only the president of Paksitan, first you look back on history of last 14 years, which goverment and whose goverment done more and what for our Pakistan and wining of any award is based on the service profile of the person not becasue today he is President of Pakistan he want to make our Pakistan stable but always he struggle for it. Pakistan Zindabad.
The PPP government was the first to launch a Polio-Eradication Campaign in BB’s tenure and it had been very successful.
Once again, it has been launched and I fail to understand why people criticize the government on ridiculous things.
I am in agreement with Rida that it is impossible to eliminate diseases or problems like Polio with an increasing population and while the campaign has just started. It will reach villages and small towns and cities, just give the government time.
Progress doesn’t happen in a flash and we should appreciate the government for what it does for the welfare of the people rather than brainlessly criticize and condemn it.
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