ISLAMABAD- A sizeable child population living in areas of vulnerable security that stayed away from the anti-Polio campaign’s reach are feared to be carrying high risk of poliovirus presence.
Since the polio campaign staff is unable to cover these areas mostly due to security constraints thus the children living in these areas could not get any vaccination against the disease. Therefore, a large number of children with respect to theirs carrying poliovirus risk are as unpredictable as they were.

According official sources the situation in the country’s conflict ridden and security-compromised areas continues to affect provision of much needed health services.

“People in these areas are also becoming a source of spread of diseases to other areas in the country as lack of health interventions means outbreaks of diseases can neither be contained nor controlled and this is resulting in spread and spill over to other areas of Pakistan” he noted.
He said that the most critical is the spread of poliomyelitis in these areas a disease that causes permanent irreversible disability.

“Where the situation in the conflict areas is resulting in affecting peace in other parts of the country, it is also a cause for spread of diseases like polio” he added.
This in turn is spread to other children as these children are taken out of the conflict zones and settle in camps for the Internally Displaced Persons or in houses of their relatives and near and dear ones he opined.

According to careful estimates close to 0.7 million children belonging to security-compromised areas could not get the polio vaccine despite efforts of the local teams. The situation has indeed reached alarming proportions and has put health experts in a spin as despite best efforts by the provincial and federal teams there seems to be no let up in the polio cases.

Most of these cases have been reported from NWFP and FATA and even in Punjab and the Federal Capital Islamabad, majority of polio cases are genetically linked to the security compromised areas in NWFP and FATA and Afghanistan remarked an epidemiologist working for the polio eradication initiative.

Poliovirus circulation is restricted to transmission zones in NWFP and FATA and areas bordering Afghanistan, which present a major risk to the other polio free areas, said the expert.

By FOZIA AZAM - nation.com.pk