Reported Polio cases in Pakistan during 2019
- Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing (210009), China
- College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xian, China
- Department of Genetics, Centre for Human Genetics, Hazara University Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Islamic Republic of Pakistan
- Medical Education and Simulation, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, SAU
- Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
Abstract
This report describes polio cases, vaccination uncertainty and challenges, and the way forward to eradicate polio from Pakistan. Numerous articles, government and non-government documents, and survey reports were studied and an online search was made to collect information on polio in Pakistan. Once again the polio vaccination program has been stopped and accused by the local community in Pakistan as a result an increase has been seen in polio cases in the last year. In 2019, a total of 117 wild poliovirus (WPV) and 18 circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV2) cases were reported from the country. The majority of cases were from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province as a result of polio vaccination uncertainty and many challenges faced by the vaccination program in the region. Pakistan reported their highest annual number of WPV cases as compared to last few years. This increase is not only an alarming threat for the country but also a key challenge for the global polio eradication movement. Increase awareness and raising immunization to over 100% in some areas especially in the remote area where every year many children missed vaccination to achieve global polio eradication goals.