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Pakistan: 1 policeman martyred, 2 injured in IED blast near police van in DI Khan | DAWN.

[February 18, 2020] Zahid Imdad and Ali Akbar write:

The police van was deployed for the security of polio workers in Kulachi area of Dera Ismail Khan. -- DawnNewsTV

At least one policeman was martyred while two others were injured on Tuesday when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near a police mobile in Kulachi area of Dera Ismail Khan.

District Police Officer Wahid Mahmood confirmed the causality, adding that the police mobile was deployed for the security of polio workers canvasing the area. The injured have been shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital, where their condition is said to be stable.

He said that the area has been cordoned off, while a search operation is underway.

Mahmood said that the police mobile was targeted while policemen were being deployed to provide security to polio workers.

Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa Mahmood Khan condemned the blast and said that the death of a policeman is extremely sad. "We stand with the family of the martyred," he said.

He also directed that the two injured men be given the best possible treatment.

This year’s first nationwide polio vaccination drive began on Monday, aiming to vaccinate approximately 39.6 million children. The campaign involves nearly 265,000 polio workers going door-to-door to inoculate children under the age of five.

Just a few days ago, the National Institute of Health confirmed five more polio cases from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, bringing the tally for the current year so far to 17. Last year, 144 cases were reported nationwide, 12 in 2018 and eight cases in 2017.

In January, two polio workers were killed when their team came under attack in Swabi's Parmoli area. Attacks on polio workers are common in various parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. This is one of the biggest hindrances to the eradication of polio from the country.

Ghana Health Service to embark on inactivated polio vaccination | Ghana News Agency.

[17th February 2020]

Accra, Feb. 17, GNA - The Greater Accra Regional Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Service is to undertake Inactivated Polio Vaccination (IPV) campaign beginning Wednesday, February 19, to Tuesday, February 25, 2020.

It is part of the nationwide campaign targeting children aged between 21 months and 47 months.

A press release issued on Monday, signed by Dr Charity Sarpong, the Greater Accra Regional Director of Health Services, said: “In July 2019, a wild Polio Virus was confirmed in the environmental surveillance sample from the Tamale Koblimaghu drain in the Tamale Metro of the Northern Region of Ghana.”

”And in August 2019 another wild Polio Virus was confirmed in an Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) case in Ando Nyamanu Community in the Chereponi District.”

“Then on August 13, 2019 the Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research (NMIMR) also isolated a wild Polio Virus from a single sample collected from the Agbogbloshie environmental surveillance site in the Greater Accra Region.”

“Since then there has been confirmation of wild Polio Virus from some environmental surveillance samples in other districts within the Greater Accra Region and also in some regions in the country.”

In response to this, the Ministry of Health and other health partners embarked on mOPV-2 reactive Vaccination campaign in the Greater Accra Region and the country as a whole.

In the Greater Accra Region two rounds of mOPV-2 reactive campaigns were embarked on September 11 to 14, and then September 25 to 28, 2019.

The IPV campaign is, therefore, to reinforce the 2019 mOPV-2 reactive vaccination campaign.

This is an injection, which would be given on the right shoulder of all Children eligible for the vaccine at all Public Health facilities and designated points in the communities in all 29 districts of the Region.

“It is very essential that every eligible child receives the IPV during this campaign for protection, irrespective of their routine immunisation status.”

It said polio is a deadly disease that can paralyse and even cause death, and the IPV vaccination prevents that.

“The IPV is an extremely safe and effective vaccine that has been used successfully in many countries for several decades. Polio Vaccine, given multiple times can protect a child for life and is not harmful,” the release said.

It encouraged people to always wash their hands with soap under running water, especially after using the toilet, cleaning the baby's buttocks, before eating or preparing food, before feeding the baby, and before serving meals.

GNA

Pakistan: Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid Urges Parents To Ignore Propaganda Against Polio Vaccination | UrdoPoint.

[17th February 2020]

Umer Jamshaid writes:

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Feb, 2020 ) :Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid Monday urged media to support present government in addressing hard-core polio refusals and urged religious leaders and all stakeholders to convince parents to vaccinate their children and take up the issue as a national cause.

Talking to a private news channel, She emphasized the need for countering propaganda against polio vaccine specially on social media, saying collective efforts were need of the hour to save new generation from crippling virus.

She urged the entire nation to actively participate in the ongoing anti-polio drive which would continue from Feb 17 to Feb 21 all across the country.

Yasmin Rashid said media could play an important role in polio eradication by raising public awareness about the disease and importance of vaccination to prevent child deaths and disabilities.

"We have the only challenge to change the mind sets of parents for cooperation with the government who are influenced of the negative propaganda of certain anti-state elements and refused to vaccine their infants that also endangered all the new born children against this chronic disease", she added.

Minister said parent's refusal is the biggest challenge for us to eradicate polio from its soil.

She said government is striving hard to curb anti-polio campaigns.

Health minister said more than one lack officials would administer anti-polio vaccine during the campaign in Punjab.

She said strict security arrangements were made for safety of polio workers across the province, adding, the drive would be strictly monitored.

She regretted that several refusal cases were reported last year. However, she said efforts were under way to convince parents to administer anti-polio vaccine to their children.

She urged the parents not to pay any attention to rumors regarding the polio vaccine and to ensure their children to administer polio vaccine drops in every campaign.

The PTI government is striving to hit the virus hard through this special campaign. Its top priority is to focus on reaching still missed children through continued improvement in the drive and to protect every missed child from the vital polio vaccine.

Replying to a question, she said government is committed to expand Sehat Insaf Card program to all districts, adding, process of distributing Sehat Insaf Cards among families in 36 districts of Punjab had been completed as a result free-of-cost treatment facilities would be made available to people of the province.

Pakistan: Fresh cases put question mark on polio eradication plan | DAWN.

[February 17, 2020] Ashfaq Yusufzai writes:

PESHAWAR: The hue and cry by international and national organisations over the recently notified vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (VDPV2) has once more put to question the Pakistan’s polio eradication programme as continuous emergence of cases has upset the health authorities regarding the source of the strain of virus, eradicated from the world in 1999, according to sources.

Last month the VDPV2 were detected in Peshawar, Bajaur and Khyber districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to bring the total number of cases to 25 as 22 cases were diagnosed last year.

Sources said that Pakistan had been using OPV till 2016 that was stopped when the World Health Organisation recommended that no case had been reported since 1999 and also verified that no vial of OPV existed in the country.

Following the WHO’s recommendations, Pakistan began administering Bivalent (P1 and P3) instead of Trivalent (P1, P2 and P3) to the children because P2 was withdrawn from vaccine schedule in April 2016.

“We are at loss to understand the source of VDPV2 because it is derived from vaccination, which has been stopped in 2016 and the WHO verified that Pakistan did not have the stock,” said sources.

Health authorities upset about source of type 2 virus strain.

They said that Pakistan recorded 17 polio cases from September to December that included nine from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa one each from Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad.

However, the cases weren’t notified due to which Pakistan was accused by the international community of covering up the cases.

WHO is mainly responsible for surveillance system regarding poliovirus and duly manages such eventuality from acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) case identification to collection of stool sample, dispatching to National Institute of Health, Islamabad.

The whole dirt for non-notification of the cases was thrown at Babar Bin Atta, the former focal person for polio education.

The issue was also discussed in Senate few days ago where members demanded Babar’s arrest.

However, sources said that the WHO could have notified cases from its offices located in Geneva and other international offices that received all information from all countries the same day, if notifying the cases from Pakistan was that difficult.

It was moral, technical and ethical responsibility of WHO to inform other sources in the government of the gravity of the situation but it didn’t, they added.

“Moreover, now one person is being made a scapegoat for all the ills.

Why there was a pin drop silence from WHO when VDPV2 cases were detected back in August 2019,” they questioned.

Source said that historically the government of Pakistan was held accountable for the wrong policies and strategies by the international actors such as WHO and others but surprisingly the key government functionaries were tightlipped or rather provided space to those powerful lobbies to escape.

Even the government didn’t ask WHO as to why the virus once eradicated reemerged in Pakistan when the P2 vaccine were withdrawn from the programme.

Sources said that actually WHO was the technical lead agency on the subject and should have come up with valid explanation to untangle the issue at that time.

The WHO chief in Pakistan didn’t respond to telephone calls and messages to seek his comments.

National Polio Coordinator Dr Rana Mohammad Safdar said that polio type 2 had been eradicated from the world since 1999and no case was reported afterwards from anywhere in the world including Pakistan.

“VDPV2 is mutated virus that has caused outbreaks in over 20 countries of the world since OPV switch in April 2016.

“It is a global challenge and besides multiple other countries, Philippines and Malaysia in Asia have recorded recent cases as well,” he said.

Like other countries, Pakistan is also responding to the VDPV2 detection as per global guidelines and SOPs using special OPV2 vaccine rounds.

Sources said that Pakistan was at the centre stage of the polio eradication due to emergence of most cases of P1 in 2019 and 2020 but the reemergence of P2 cases also put question mark on the WHO’s role.

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