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- Health minister says rapid confirmation of virus demonstrates anti-polio system is working efficiently in country
- Announces Pakistan will conduct a polio vaccination campaign next month in areas where the virus is still present
ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Health Minister Dr. Nadeem Jan said this week that Pakistan has the most “sensitive” polio surveillance system in the world, announcing that the South Asian country would conduct a vaccination campaign next month in areas where the virus is still present, the state-run Radio Pakistan said in a report.
Pakistan is one of only two countries in the world where polio remains endemic. The potentially fatal, paralyzing disease mostly strikes children up to the age of 5 and typically spreads in contaminated water.
“Caretaker Minister for Health Dr. Nadeem Jan has said Pakistan has the world’s most sensitive polio surveillance system,” Radio Pakistan said in a report on Saturday.
“As rapid confirmation of the virus in environmental samples demonstrates that the system is working efficiently.”
On Sept. 25, the Pakistan Polio Laboratory at the National Institute of Health said a sewage sample collected from Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi and two samples collected from Hangu in northwestern Pakistan tested positive for wild poliovirus type 1.
Jan said the disease is incurable and only vaccination against it provides lifelong protection to children, the report said.
On Oct. 2, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar kicked off a national polio campaign that aimed to provide anti-polio drops to 44 million children across the country.
“The Minister announced the government will organize a polio vaccination campaign next month in areas where the virus is present,” the report added. The minister also urged parents to ensure their children received polio drops in these campaigns.
Pakistan’s efforts to eradicate polio have encountered difficulties as many Pakistanis harbor suspicions about foreign entities that fund vaccination campaigns.
Many believe in the conspiracy theory that polio vaccines are part of a plot by Western outsiders to sterilize Pakistan’s population. The masses’ doubts regarding polio campaigns were exacerbated in 2011 when the US Central Intelligence Agency set up a fake hepatitis vaccination program to gather intelligence on former Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.