Matter of concern: WHO sees Peshawar as polio reservoir

After the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Peshawar as the world’s largest reservoir of the polio virus, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan directed Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s chief minister to undertake on an emergency basis a programme to stamp out all the nine diseases that fall under the umbrella of the provincial Expanded Programme On Immunisation. With more than 90% of the current polio cases in the country genetically linked to Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is now the largest reservoir of the polio virus in the world, the WHO reported on Friday. “Pakistan is the only polio-endemic country in the world where polio cases rose from 2012 to 2013,” the statement issued by WHO from Islamabad reads.

The explosive poliovirus outbreak in FATA, which has left 65 children paralysed during the last year, is also sustained by Peshawar. As much of the population of the area moves through Peshawar, the city acts as an amplifier of the poliovirus, the statement reads. “The prevailing security situation in Peshawar has seriously affected the quality of the polio campaign in the city and is resulting in inadequate coverage of children against the virus,” the report states. K-P Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak informed PTI chief that the government of K-P in close collaboration with the PTI Policy Reform Unit is already working on a special programme.