Page 3 - Polio

90% polio cases in Pakistan 'imported' from Afghanistan: Health minister

Nadeem's remarks came after two more samples tested positive for the poliovirus in Pakistan, just a day after this year's third case surfaced

Pakistan launches anti-polio vaccine drive targeting 44 mn children

Pakistan launched its second nationwide anti-polio campaign of the year Monday in an effort to inoculate 44 million children under the age of 5 amid signs the country was close to eradicating the disease. Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul-Haq-Kakar launched the five-day vaccination campaign in the capital, Islamabad, and urged parents in a televised address to cooperate with the 350,000 health workers who are going door-to-door to administer vaccine drops to children. The campaign was taking place under heavy security. The government deployed police and security forces to ensure the safety of the inoculation drive workers. Vaccine providers and the police assigned to protect them have been attacked during past anti-polio campaigns, which militants falsely claimed were a Western conspiracy to sterilise children. Pakistan has registered two new polio cases since January, a blow to the goal of eradicating a disease that affects the nervous system and can cause severe paralysis in ...

WHO extends travel restrictions on Pak for 3 months amid polio breakout

It stressed that the ongoing risk of a polio epidemic in Pakistan is underscored by recent favourable environmental tests from Peshawar and Karachi

Scientists develop 2 new polio vaccines to help eradicate viral disease

Scientists have developed two novel oral polio vaccines (nOPVs) that they say will bolster the World Health Organization's most recent push to finally eradicate the viral disease. The two nOPVs, recently described in the journal Nature, are made from weakened poliovirus that has been genetically engineered to reduce reversion to dangerous forms of the virus. "With such variation in vaccination within and between countries, poliovirus has persisted into the 21st century, with sometimes tragic consequences," said Raul Andino, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in the US. "We have designed these new vaccines using lessons learned from many years of fighting polio and believe they will help eliminate the disease once and for all," said Andino, co-senior author of the research paper. Polio is usually asymptomatic, but can cause severe disability, paralysis or death in about one in every hundred children. It spreads via fecal or oral particles, so it is ...

Wild poliovirus detected in environmental samples in Pakistan: Report

Two environmental samples collected from Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province have tested positive for wild poliovirus, the Health Ministry said.

DMRC sets up pulse polio booths at 18 metro stations; check list here

Earlier, Punjab and Haryana governments also launched a three-day polio immunisation campaign in their states

Nearly 1.5 mn to be covered under pulse polio immunisation drive in Haryana

Nearly 15 lakh children will be covered under the first sub-national immunisation round of pulse polio 2023-24 that will take place in six districts of Haryana, according to an official statement. The six districts are Faridabad, Gurugram, Jhajjar, Mewat, Sonipat and Kaithal in which booth activity was undertaken on the first day in order to maintain the polio-free status of the state, it said. Also referred to as SNID, the three-day campaign will continue for another two days by way of house-to-house activity to trace and administer polio drops to the left-out children on booth day. On the first day of the activity, approximately 7.9 lakh children under 5 years of age have been administered polio drops. In order to smoothly carry out this campaign, around 6,600 booths were set up in the state and these were manned by approximately 26,000 health officials and Anganwadi workers and volunteers. The left-out children during the booth activity on the first day will be administered pol

Shortage of polio vaccines leads to cancellation of nation-wide vaccination

India administers two kinds of polio vaccines to children, first is the inactive polio vaccine (IPV) and the other is the bio-oral polio vaccine (bOPV) which contains live viruses to provide immunity

National Vaccination Day 2023: Know Importance of March 16, Theme, Quotes

National Vaccination Day celebrates Pulse Polio Immunization Programme launched in 1995 to fight a disease that has now been eradicated in the country

Over 33 million kids vaccinated against polio in southern Africa: WHO

More than 33 million children in several southern African countries have been vaccinated against polio, part of ongoing efforts to eradicate the infectious paralytic disease that has been largely contained in much of the world, the World Health Organization announced on Friday. About 80 million drops of the inoculation have been placed in the mouths of children across Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe since the launch of an emergency response in March last year, WHO said in a statement. Malawi detected the wild poliovirus disease in a young child in its capital, Lilongwe, in February last year the first time the strain was reported in Africa in five years. The virus spread to neighboring Mozambique, causing other countries in the region to be on alert. Africa was certified as free of indigenous wild polio in 2020, according to WHO, which says the recent strain originated from Pakistan. The South Asian country and its neighbor, Afghanistan, are the only two countries

Pakistan PM Shahbaz Sharif kicks off nationwide polio eradication drive

The resurfacing of the cases has certainly raised concerns among the partners, including World Health Organization (WHO) and other stakeholders

Pakistan launches nationwide anti-polio drive amid spike in cases

Pakistani authorities launched a new nationwide anti-polio drive on Monday amid a spike in new cases among children, health officials said. It is the sixth such campaign this year and will last for five days, aiming to inoculate children under the age of 5 in high-risk areas. The newest drive was aimed at Islamabad and in the high-risk districts in eastern Punjab and southwestern Baluchistan province. A similar campaign will be launched in the northwest in the first week of December. Pakistan regularly launches polio campaigns despite attacks on workers and police assigned to inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilise children. Since April, Pakistan has registered 20 new polio cases and the outbreak has been seen as a blow to the efforts to eradicate the disease, which can cause severe paralysis in children. Pakistan came close to eradicating polio last year, when only one case was reported. Since then, new cases

Pakistan kicks off week-long nationwide anti-polio vaccination campaign

Pakistan has kicked off a week-long nationwide anti-polio vaccination campaign in an effort to prevent more children from falling victim to the crippling disease

Polio immunisation booths to be set up at multiple metro stations in Delhi

Pulse polio immunisation booths will be set up at several Delhi Metro stations on the Violet Line which can be availed by people during September 18-20, the DMRC said on Saturday. The booths will set up at Sarai, NHPC Chowk, Bata Chowk, Old Faridabad, Escorts Mujesar, and Raja Nahar Singh (Ballabhgarh), among other stations, the DMRC said in a poster shared on Twitter. "Pulse Polio Booths will be set up at select metro stations of Violet Line for SNID round of Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme 2022-23 from 18-20 September 2022 from 09.00 AM to 04.00 PM," it said. National Immunisation Day (NID) commonly known as Pulse Polio Immunisation programme was launched in India in 1995, and is conducted twice in early part of each year. Additionally, multiple rounds (at least two) of sub national immunisation day (SNID) have been conducted over the years in high-risk states or areas. In these campaigns, children in the age group of 0-5 years are administered polio drops.

US added to WHO countries with circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus list

The US now joins a list of nearly 30 other countries with circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV) identified by the WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said

Polio vax boosters offered to children in London: Here's what experts say

In June, the UK Health Security Agency reported that polio virus had been detected in sewage in north and east London post which vaccine boosters were offered.

US witnessing a silent spread in undiagnosed polio cases: CDC official

There must be several hundred cases of undiagnosed polio circulating in the US, according to a senior official with the CDC

New York reports 1st US polio case in nearly a decade in unvaccinated adult

An unvaccinated young adult from New York recently contracted polio, the first US case in nearly a decade, health officials said

Pak's longtime battle against polio faces tough challenge from militancy

Pak has been facing a tough battle against poliovirus for years with an unwelcoming attitude toward vaccines in rural areas and negative propaganda against health workers

Gunmen attack anti-polio team in Pakistan; kill three, says police

The gunmen attacked the team while it was on a door-to door anti-polio vaccination drive after nine new cases were reported this year in the district