ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is introducing injectable vaccination along with oral polio vaccine to boost immunity level of the recipients against polio virus and do away with the crippling childhood ailment, according to officials.
They said that the decision to introduce injectable polio vaccine (IPV) in combination with oral polio vaccine (OPV) was taken at a meeting, held on October 10 and chaired by provincial minister for health.
Initially, the IPV will be started in Peshawar and Bannu districts, which recorded 14 and 12 polio cases respectively of the total 43 cases in the province.
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) recorded 139 cases, the highest by any province of the total 209 cases recorded in the country in 2014 so far.
Sources said that provincial government took the decision after IPV showed promising results in Bajaur Agency during a demonstration project implemented by Aga Khan Medical University between 2011 and 2014.
Vaccination coverage for routine immunisation, including polio, had shot up to 79 percent from 28 percent in the militancy-hit Bajaur Agency.
Sources said that national immunisation target was 80 percent.
Currently, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 54 percent fully immunised children, according to health department’s statistics.
The provincial government has also requested the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunisation (GAVI) to make IPV part of its expanded programme on immunisation (EPI) to improve immunisation for all vaccine-preventable diseases, including polio, in the light of the Bajaur’s success story.
It will take more than four months for GAVI to entertain the request and make funds available and order manufacturing of IPV. It is a lengthy process.
However, the federal government has agreed to provide IPV for Peshawar and Bannu districts immediately.
The health department faces problems of refusal against the OPV and inaccessibility to children.
Additionally, in some cases in the province, the polio victims had received doses of OPV.
Even there were about four percent children who refused IPV in Bajaur Agency but still the results were highly encouraging.
When given in combination with OPV, the IPV scaled up children’s immunity level where they didn’t risk polio.
INTERNEWS
