Pakistan Polio: Crippling effect: Qilla Abdullah serves as greatest polio threat

Qilla Abdullah district of Balochistan, notorious for nursing and spreading a virulent polio virus strain to Afghanistan, has been declared as the greatest threat to polio eradication in Pakistan by foreign agencies overseeing innoculation. Genetic sequencing earlier confirmed that the newly-discovered polio strain, Sabin Like (2) poliomyelitis, had originated in Qilla Abdullah district. The virus is said to surface in areas which have a poor record of routine immunisation – a situation seen in several districts of Balochistan today. Since 2006, polio vaccination teams have repeatedly missed an estimated 50,000 children in Qilla Abdullah, jeopardising efforts to cut the endemic at its roots. Furthermore, nine other districts of the country have been declared as hurdles in the fight against polio due to an alarmingly high incidence of the disease in 2012, revealed a list jointly prepared by key partners of Pakistan’s polio eradication initiative. These include Pishin, Quetta, Lasbela and Loralai from Balochistan, Baldia and Gadap towns from Sindh, Khyber and Bajaur from the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) and Tank from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Criteria District evaluation was based on five variables: the number of children who missed inoculation as per district based reports from polio control rooms, as per the WHO Post Campaign Mechanism analysis, as per the Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS), the number of families in each district who refused to allow vaccination for their children and scientific data relating to active poliovirus spread in 2012. It is lamentable that Pakistan, despite receiving heavy international funding for polio eradication, is still unable to curb polio completely, said campaign officials. Mismanagement of resources, lack of transparency, absence of accountability, and the failure of grass root measures abet the programme’s inefficiency. The fact that the top three worst performing districts were from Balochistan was deemed worrisome. Officials said that considering the current dismal situation of polio in the country, the Prime Minister’s Polio Cell is planning to call an all party conference to bring all the political parties on one platform to battle polio. Gratefulness Meanwhile, in a statement, the WHO lauded the Balochistan chief minister’s resolve to curb the spread of Sabin Like (2) poliomyelitis virus in Qilla Abdullah, Pashin and Quetta. “We are grateful to Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani for his personal interest towards the cause of polio eradication in Balochistan,” said the Chief of Polio Eradication Dr Elias Durry. Dr Durry added that emergency inoculation rounds were the need of the day, “In order to fight the virus, three high quality campaigns are urgently required in Qilla Abdullah, Pishin and Quetta to ensure that the new polio virus strain is not transmitted to the rest of the province and country”. The rounds are planned in three districts for December 10 and 24. The final rounds will be held on January 2 next year. The chief minister has also played a vital role in implementing the direct payment mechanism, through with thousands of polio team members will now get directly paid through bank accounts – a step which will boost their performance, leading to more effective campaigns, said Dr Durry.