PAKISTAN’S PM CALLS FOR ‘ZERO TOLERANCE’ IN FIGHT TO END POLIO
▶ Infection detected in North Waziristan region is first case of deadly virus in the country in 15 months
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for the country to show “zero tolerance” in its efforts to eradicate the polio virus after the authorities detected the country’s first case in 15 months.
He was expected to hold an emergency meeting of the government’s polio eradication task force yesterday.
The best performing officials in a national anti-polio drive will be recognised as national heroes, he said on Twitter.
On Friday, health officials announced that a 15-monthold boy had been paralysed by the virus in the north-western district of North Waziristan.
Polio is caused by the poliovirus, which attacks the spinal cord and can be fatal.
“Deeply saddened to share that a 15-month-old boy has been paralysed in North Waziristan,” Dr Shahzad Baig, a co-ordinator with the National Emergency Operations Centre for Pakistan’s polio eradication programme, said on Twitter.
The country’s last case was detected in January last year, and earlier this year the authorities celebrated 12 months without a single case of the debilitating neurodegenerative disease.
It was the first time that had occurred since eradication efforts began.
Officials said the reduction of movement caused by Covid-19 lockdowns may have helped to curb cases of the virus.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in which polio remains endemic, although cases have dropped sharply.
The case in North Waziristan takes the global caseload this year to three, with an infection confirmed in Malawi and another in Afghanistan, data from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has shown.
The case in Malawi was confirmed in February, although the onset of paralysis occurred in November last year, it said.
Its three-decade worldwide campaign had come close to wiping out the virus, which caused 350,000 cases a year in the late 1980s, only to apparently stall and lose ground.
In Pakistan, cases had fallen to 12 in 2018. But the number shot up to 147 in 2019, and 84 cases were reported in 2020.
Nigeria officially eradicated wild polio in 2020. In February, Pakistan said it hoped to achieve the same goal.
The UAE has helped to vaccinate more than 100 million Pakistani children against polio in the past eight years, the UAE Pakistan Assistance Programme said last October.
Since 2014, it has delivered more than 580 million vaccine doses to children in Pakistan.
The programme was launched by the directive of the President, Sheikh Khalifa, with the support of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
The World Health Organisation has said the UAE is one of the main supporters of its programmes to eliminate epidemics and infectious diseases.
To be officially declared to have eradicated polio, a country must be polio-free for three consecutive years.
Earlier this year, health chiefs celebrated 12 months without a single case of the disease