Ulema declare polio immunization Islamic

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s religious Ulema have issued a decree declaring polio immunization Islamic, saying the vaccine contains no ingredients that may be injurious to health.

According to a communiqué issued at the conclusion of International Ulema Conference on Polio Immunization here, the Ulema allowed the administration of polio vaccine to the children in Muslim countries.

The Ulema strongly condemned the use of anti-polio drive for gaining political mileage.

They demanded that access to every part of the country be made possible so that polio vaccine can be administered and security of the polio workers be ensured.

They said mere rumours can put at risk the lives of thousands of children.

Travellers from Pakistan will require polio vaccination from June 1

ISLAMABAD: Polio vaccination certificates will become mandatory for travellers from Pakistan to foreign countries from June 1.

According to Ministry of Health Services, provinces have been issued one million health certificates. Officials from the ministry say district health officers, medical superintendents and EDO health will be authorised officers for issuing polio certificates.

All major government hospitals and airports in provinces will have special polio counters. At airports officials from the Civil Aviation Authority and Health Ministry will issue vaccination certificates. It is mandatory to carry passports and present them at polio counters.

Polio cells have been formed at PIMS and Polyclinic hospitals in Islamabad.

New polio case detected in FR Bannu

BANNU: A new polio case has been detected from Frontier Region (FR) Bannu, increasing the total number of such cases to 68 in the country, Geo news reported.

According to Polio Monitoring Cell, the case was detected in a seven-month-old minor girl in Jani Khel, area of Bannu. It said the affected child was not administered polio drops not even once.

The cell further said a total of 53 cases of polio had been reported in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), while the number of cases reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh are 9 and 5 respectively.

WHO declares polio ‘public health emergency’

GENEVA: The World Health Organization warned Monday that the crippling disease polio has reemerged as a public health emergency, after new cases surfaced in a range of countries.
"The conditions for a public health emergency of international concern have been met," WHO assistant director general Bruce Aylward told reporters in Geneva following crisis talks on the crippling and potentially fatal viral disease that mainly affects children under the age of five. (AFP)

Pakistan to set up polio vaccination points at airports

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will set up mandatory polio immunisation points at its international airports in response to recommendations by the World Health Organisation, the health ministry said Tuesday.

The WHO warned Monday that the crippling disease has re-emerged as a public health emergency, with the virus currently affecting 10 countries worldwide and endemic in three including Pakistan.

"Special measures will include establishing mandatory immunisation counters on all airports, border crossings and seaports for all travellers," said ministry spokesman Sajid Ali Shah.

The WHO had called on Pakistan, Cameroon and Syria, seen as posing the greatest risk of exporting wild poliovirus, to ensure all residents and long-term visitors receive a polio vaccine between four weeks and a year before travelling abroad. For urgent travel, at least one vaccine dose should be given before departure, according to the emergency committee, which also called for all travellers to be given certificates proving they have been immunised.

Shah could not confirm whether long-term non-Pakistani residents would also be subject to immunisation under the new initiative. "That will be decided in a meeting scheduled soon," he said.

According to the WHO, Pakistan recorded 91 cases of polio last year, up from 58 in 2012. It has also recorded 59 of the world´s 74 cases this year.

The disease has re-emerged in Pakistan because the Taliban and other militants violently oppose inoculation campaigns and because of public fears that the vaccine leads to infertility.

Militants see the polio campaign as a cover for foreign spying and regularly attack immunisation teams, killing some 56 people since December 2012.Their opposition has increased since a Pakistani doctor helped track down terror chief Osama bin Laden in 2011 using a fake vaccine project.

Last month officials announced they would begin administering polio drops to children at security checkpoints in the country´s lawless tribal belt.

India, which recently celebrated the eradication of the disease, announced in December it would require Pakistanis to obtain vaccination certificates six weeks before cross-border travel.

Anti polio drive postponed in tribal areas

BAJAUR: The health department has postponed the scheduled three-day anti polio campaign in the agency due to incomplete arrangements and unavailability of vaccines, sources of the local health department told.

Dr Zakir Hussain, Agency surgeon Bajaur, when contacted confirmed the postponement of polio drive in the agency. He said that the polio campaign was not only postponed in Bajaur but also in the entire tribal areas.

However, the drive in Bajaur and all over the tribal areas would be launched on May 5, Dr Zakir added. The department with special instructions of directorate of health services Fata has postponed its three-day anti polio drive starting from April 28 Monday. Incomplete security arrangements, unavailability of vaccines, shortage of necessary equipments and volunteers could be the reasons for postponement of the campaign.

“The officials of directorate of health services Fata have sent a notification to the offices of local health department in which they had asked us to postpone the anti polio drive until a later date. I donot know the causes behind the postponement of campaign but we have been instructed by the senior officials to not launch the drive on Monday,” an official of health department told.

Pakistan to use polio vaccine checkpoints in Taliban areas

PESHAWAR: Officials said on Monday they would begin administering polio vaccines to children at security checkpoints in the tribal belt to protect against the Taliban attacks.

The announcement was made at a ceremony to mark the launch of a three-day anti-polio campaign in Peshawar, and is aimed at children from North Waziristan and other Taliban strongholds. Farakh Sair Khan, a senior administrative official for the tribal areas, told the gathering the new strategy would “vaccinate children belonging to areas that are not accessible for the polio workers.”

“North Waziristan is affected most by the polio virus and unfortunately we had not been able to vaccinate the children there for security reasons but we are trying to overcome it,” Khan said. As many as 2643 polio teams will be participating in the campaign to vaccinate children under five, he added.

“We will establish over 50 vaccination sites next to the checkpoints of security forces,” said Shahdab Younis, an official of the UNICEF said. “Establishing these sites next to security checkpoints will minimise the risk of attacks,” she added. She said the move would also pressure parents into allowing their children to be vaccinated due to the intimidating presence of armed troops.

“We have received 37 new cases of polio in the first three months of this year, 33 of them are from North Waziristan,” Younis said. “Polio vaccination was banned in North Waziristan since 2012 and the children there have not been vaccinated against polio since,” she added.

Meanwhile, a separate official said talks had begun with the army, whose co-operation would be required. “We are discussing it with the army because most of the security checkpoints belong to (them),” the official said.

Three more polio cases in NWA on World Health Day

PESHAWAR: As World Health Day was being marked on Monday, three new polio cases were reported from North Waziristan Agency (NWA) that took the number of detected polio cases in Pakistan to 43 this year.

According to sources in the Prime Minister’s Polio Monitoring and Coordination Cell, laboratory confirmed wild poliovirus (type-1) in the tribal agency wracked by Taliban-led militancy. Poliovirus has turned endemic in North Waziristan Agency as this year alone 33 cases of polio (76.7percent of total) were detected in the agency. Three cases this year have already been reported from the neighbouring Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This situation has been hobbling government efforts to purge the country of the disease.

The sources said that a 34-month-old Bushra, daughter of Noor Ali Khan, was confirmed with the poliovirus. Belonging to Mami Rogha village Manzarkhel in tehsil Miranshah, she got her leg paralysed on March 20 and laboratory test confirmed her with poliovirus.

Ashiqullah, son of Noor Badshah, who ages 12 months, had onset of paralysis on March 14. The child’s family comes from Spalgai, village Borakhel Sir Kot in tehsil Miranshah. Another 11-month-old Abuless son of Allah Dar Khan, whose paralysis started on March 19, was also confirmed to have afflicted by the poliovirus. He belongs to Saidgai, village Dewagor Saidgai in tehsil Miranshah.

Two of the victims are boys and one girl. The new polio detections increased the number of polio cases in Pakistan to 43 in 2014. It’s alarming that 42 out of the 43 cases were reported from Fata and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the regions affected by years of militancy. Attacks on polio workers have also aggravated situation and posed serious challenge to the government to deal with poliovirus and attacks at the same time. A whooping 36 cases were detected in Fata and six from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Only one case this year was reported from Baldia Town Karachi.

In the same time period last year, only six cases were detected in the country against 43 this year. Also, seven districts/agencies were infected by poliovirus this year against the six last year for the same time period.Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has launched the “Sehat Ka Insaf” programme to accelerate and ensure polio vaccination in Peshawar, the provincial capital that was described by the WHO the “world’s largest reservoir” of polio. Last Sunday, the programme was extended to three other districts, Mardan, Charsadda and Swabi.

However, in the tribal areas polio vaccination to children has become almost impossible due to militants’ opposition. According to the Prime Minister’s Polio Monitoring and Coordination Cell sources none of the victims in North Waziristan Agency or South Waziristan had received polio drops in 2014. The region remains vulnerable to poliovirus attacks as preventive measures could not be undertaken.

According to the sources, no supplementary immunisation activities (SIAs) could be carried out in North and South Waziristan agencies since June 2012, causing the current outbreak of poliovirus. In 2013, 37 cases of wild polio were reported while this year the number rose to 33. In addition to it, 41 Sabin-2 like virus cases in 2013 and five in 2014 were reported from North Waziristan.

Mass polio vaccine campaign launched after Iraq case

BAGHDAD: Authorities launched a massive polio vaccination campaign on Sunday in Iraq, Syria and Egypt after health officials found a suspected case of the virus in a young boy near Baghdad.

The five-day campaign aims to vaccinate more than 20 million children, including 5.6 million in Iraq alone, UNICEF said, with confirmed cases in conflict-hit neighboring Syria having sparked a region-wide alert. "Polio eradication is a global priority," UNICEF's representative in Iraq Marzio Babille said in a statement.

"I appeal to the people of Iraq to join hands in ensuring every child under the age of five is vaccinated during the upcoming April polio campaign, regardless of how many doses they've received previously."

Last month, Iraq's health ministry said it found a case of polio in a young boy in Bab Al-Sham, near Baghdad, the country's first such case in 14 years.

Health ministry spokesman Ziad Tariq said at the time that officials believed the case originated in Syria, which shares a long border with Iraq's restive western province of Anbar.

In early January, anti-government fighters took control of all of the Anbar city of Falluja, and parts of the provincial capital Ramadi, some of which they still hold.

A total of 27 children have been paralysed by polio in Syria through the end of March, according to the UN, including 18 in Deir Ezzor, the Syrian province across the border from Anbar.

Lebanon and Turkey will join the regional polio vaccination campaign on April 10 and April 18 respectively, according to UNICEF.

Mass polio vaccine campaign launched after Iraq case

BAGHDAD: Authorities launched a massive polio vaccination campaign on Sunday in Iraq, Syria and Egypt after health officials found a suspected case of the virus in a young boy near Baghdad.

The five-day campaign aims to vaccinate more than 20 million children, including 5.6 million in Iraq alone, UNICEF said, with confirmed cases in conflict-hit neighboring Syria having sparked a region-wide alert. "Polio eradication is a global priority," UNICEF's representative in Iraq Marzio Babille said in a statement.

"I appeal to the people of Iraq to join hands in ensuring every child under the age of five is vaccinated during the upcoming April polio campaign, regardless of how many doses they've received previously."

Last month, Iraq's health ministry said it found a case of polio in a young boy in Bab Al-Sham, near Baghdad, the country's first such case in 14 years.

Health ministry spokesman Ziad Tariq said at the time that officials believed the case originated in Syria, which shares a long border with Iraq's restive western province of Anbar.

In early January, anti-government fighters took control of all of the Anbar city of Falluja, and parts of the provincial capital Ramadi, some of which they still hold.

A total of 27 children have been paralysed by polio in Syria through the end of March, according to the UN, including 18 in Deir Ezzor, the Syrian province across the border from Anbar.

Lebanon and Turkey will join the regional polio vaccination campaign on April 10 and April 18 respectively, according to UNICEF.

Polio vaccination proof mandatory for Pakistani nationalists to enter India after March 15

Though the requirement was supposed to come into effect from January, India extended the deadline to allow Pakistan to set up necessary infrastructure.

India on Tuesday announced that proof of vaccination against polio would be mandatory after March 15 for everyone entering India from Pakistan to safeguard the country’s polio-free status.
Travellers from Pakistan will have to carry vaccination certificate, which would be later returned to them along with their visa.
“Pakistani nationals resident in Pakistan and planning to travel to India after March 15, 2014 will be required to submit along with their visa applications a certificate of vaccination for one dose of Oral Polio Vaccination received at least four weeks prior to departure to India,” a statement released by the Indian High Commission in Islamabad said.
India had earlier announced that starting March 15, it would be mandatory for all persons – adults or children – travelling to the country from Pakistan to furnish proof of vaccination against the crippling disease.
“The step is being taken to safeguard India’s polio-free status attained after sustained efforts and investment,” an Indian High Commission official said.
Though the requirement was supposed to come into effect from January, India extended the deadline to allow Pakistan to set up necessary infrastructure.
The measure is applicable to all travellers from all countries where polio disease is endemic or where cases of polio are reported.
The number of polio cases in Pakistan, one of the only three countries where the disease is endemic, crossed over 90 last year. A number of fresh cases have also come to light this year.
Militants and gunmen frequently attack vaccination teams, accusing them of being Western spies and part of a plot to “sterilise” Muslims.
The announcement came on a day when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a meeting on polio at his residence.
Sharif said it is a matter of grave concern that there is a possibility of travel restrictions being imposed on Pakistanis since virus from Pakistan has been found linked to polio cases in other countries.
“Since it is a question of honour, image and prestige of our country, we must redouble our efforts to eradicate polio from our country,” Sharif was quoted as saying in an official statement.

Imran links polio team attacks to Shakil Afridi

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman, Imran Khan said attacks on polio teams were linked to the Shakil Afridi incident.
“Polio health workers and policemen were not targeted prior to the Shakil Afridi incident,” said Imran Khan during a news conference alongside a delegation of the World Health Organisation.
The PTI chairman added that he would advise Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to make polio immunisation part of the dialogue process with the Taliban.
“There is a war-like situation in North Waziristan and polio immunisation in the area should be made part of the dialogue process.”