Another two children confirmed with polio in three days in Karachi
KARACHI: Two more children, belonging to Pashtun families from Baldia Town, were confirmed by authorities as the latest victims of the poliovirus, bringing the alarmingly increasing figure of such cases to four in just three days, it emerged on Wednesday.
According to officials, so far six cases have been detected in the city, and overall 11 in Sindh.
“Two more cases of poliovirus are confirmed from Baldia Town,” said a senior official in the provincial health department.
He identified eight-month-old Zainab, daughter of Doulat Khan, resident of Union Council-1 and 16-month-old Mohammad, son of Fazal Noor, resident of UC-4, of the same neighbourhood.
‘This is extremely unfortunate as this is becoming a bad end to an otherwise good year’
The stool samples of both children were sent to the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, on Nov 11 and 21, respectively, and the results confirmed on Wednesday declared that both children would have to live with the lifelong crippling virus.
Officials said that the lower limbs and left arm of Zainab, and the right leg of Mohammad had been affected.
Zainab was administered with seven polio boosters in Karachi — one during the routine campaign and six during special immunisation drives.
Mohammad received no routine booster but was said to have been inoculated with two doses in special campaigns.
Increasing numbers
A total of four children have been detected with polio in just three days in Karachi. Twenty-two-month-old Mudassir and 47-month-old Shayan belonging to Pashtun families were confirmed cases two days back. Their families live in Gadap’s UC-5 and UC-6. The previous two children too had been inoculated with polio vaccine several times.
The emergency operations centre (EOC) for polio in Sindh has already launched an investigation into the cases to find the causes behind the infliction of the deadly disease to children who had already received the vaccine.
“Most probably their bodies would have little immunity to resist the virus and assist the vaccine, which eventually led to the tragedy,” said an official.
“This is extremely unfortunate as this is becoming a bad end to an otherwise good year in which we have seen a significant drop in polio cases,” said an EOC official.
The EOC official said they had been previously showing concern that despite vaccinations, the polio virus had persisted in the environment which inevitably resulted in new cases.
“What we have achieved so far is not enough,” he said. “If the virus has to be stopped it has to be stopped immediately.”
All six cases in Karachi have been reported within the last two months. The last confirmed case from the city was reported from Gadap town on October 14, 2014.
Gadap and Baldia towns are regarded as the two most sensitive neighbourhoods where security concerns have been great, which was evident from a number of attacks on polio teams in the past.
However, officials admitted that security available for the teams assigned to inoculate children in Gadap and Baldia was sparse, which often forced the concerned officials not to permit them from leaving the camp where they had congregated.
Despite orders by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and promises by senior police officials, polio volunteers never received adequate security cover in recent campaigns, some of which had been cancelled for the same reason.
Sindh shares 11 out of 47 polio cases this year with six reported from Karachi, two from Dadu and one each from Qambar, Sukkur, and Khairpur district.
Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2015