The people of Pakistan wait with bated breath, as each new day evolves into a week and weeks into months. The WHO AFP Surveillance Update on 15th April ‘2010 has not reported a single polio case since 9th March 2010, making it a total of 37 days since the last polio case was reported.
The Global partners in the struggle to eradicate polio – WHO, UNICEF, Rotary International and CDC have relentlessly campaigned this last decade. The Pakistan National Institute of Health has made it a mission to immunize children in a house-to- house immunization rounds, ensuring that no child, in any community, in any Province is missed.
Rotary International has been selflessly funding projects and events for the Polio Eradication Initiative in Pakistan as Pakistan’s struggle against polio has prolonged; this can be attributed to a variety of factors that include: cultural obstacles, supervision and frequent transfers of district health officers but most importantly, the security concerns in the NWFP and FATA region.
Since 1988, the number of polio cases worldwide had decreased by over 99 percent, from an estimated more than 350,000 cases to 1,919 reported cases in 2002 (as of 16 April 2003). The reduction is the result of the global effort to eradicate the disease.
In 2004, Pakistan’s total polio confirmed cases stood at 53, while in 2005 the following year, the numbers fell considerably to 28. A 47% decrease in the number of cases between 2004 & 2005 was evident. A UNICEF official said ‘‘we hoped that in 2005, we would see the final cases and this will be the final year of polio in Pakistan.
The total numbers of cases reported in 2001 were 119, at par with the 2008 cases, established at 117. The political climate in Pakistan had changed and thousands of inhabitants along the Pakistan Afghanistan border crossed into Pakistan. Tracking Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) was becoming a monumental task, and this influx caused hardship to immunization teams to monitor families and their children for vaccinating them against poliomyelitis.
Widespread campaign awareness against polio funded by Rotary International has brought fruitful results in Pakistan. The Pakistan Polio Committee organized an Ulema Convention to encourage Ulemas to spread polio awareness through mosques and religious schools; aggressive efforts to create awareness to families through the projection of End Polio Now billboards, and hoardings across Pakistan; the District Rotary Clubs have been holding polio camps, joining hands to work together with the National Immunization Teams to distribute social mobilization items most effective tool in accessing areas, where security is an issue. We hope that by 2012, Pakistan would be polio free and we could fulfill our dream of a Polio free Pakistan.
