ISLAMABAD: The country reported yet another case of wild poliovirus (WPV1) on Monday, bringing the total number of cases this year to 68.

The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Erad­i­c­a­tion at the National Ins­titute of Health confirmed that the case was detected in Dera Ismail Khan.

“This is the 10th polio case from D.I. Khan this year,” an official from the laboratory said. “So far, 27 cases have been reported from Balochistan, 20 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 19 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.”

The first phase of the Sub-National Polio Vacci­n­a­tion Campaign, conduc­ted from Dec 16 to 22, successfully vaccinated over 42 million children across Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pak­h­tunkhwa, Azad Jam­mu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad.

The second phase began on Dec 30 (yesterday) and will run until Jan 5, targeting all 36 districts of Balochistan. During this phase, 2.7 million children under the age of five are expected to receive the bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV).

The campaign involves three days of vaccination, followed by two catch-up days in most areas. How­ever, regions implementing Community-Based Vac­cination and Special Mobile Team strategies will conduct a five-day campaign with two additional catch-up days.

A total of 2,529 area in-charges, 824 union council medical officers, and 11,611 teams are participating in the drive.

PM calls for enhanced use of technology

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday, in a meeting with the polio eradication team, emphasised the importance of increasing the use of technology across all health sectors, including polio eradication, to modernise public health monitoring systems and achieve better outcomes, the APP reported.

The premier met the polio eradication team to discuss the ongoing efforts to eliminate the disease from Pakistan.

The meeting was attended by Dr Mukhtar Ahmed Bharath, the PM’s Coordinator for National Health; Ayesha Raza Farooq, the PM’s Focal Person for Polio Eradication; Federal Secretary of National Health Nadim Mehmood; and National Coordinator of the National Emergency Opera­tions Centre (NEOC) Anwarul Haq, among others, the Prime Minister’s Office said.

During the meeting, PM Shehbaz disclosed that he had received a letter from Bill Gates, the chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who praised the ongoing efforts in Pakistan’s polio eradication campaign and praised the polio workers for their efforts.

The prime minister also directed officials to formulate a structured roster for visiting high-risk polio-affected areas during the campaign to ensure even more effective results.

He highlighted the unfortunate rise in the number of polio-affected children in the country, calling for greater collective efforts to address the issue.

He reiterated the importance of ensuring the security of polio workers, emphasising that their safety could not be underestimated and called for measures in this regard.

The prime minister was briefed on developments in the anti-polio campaign, with focus on the significant role played by local communities in making the initiative successful.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2024