- Email: [email protected]
A success story of Pakistan: The country at the verge of winning the battle against polio
Accepted Manuscript A success story of Pakistan: The country at the verge of winning the battle against polio Asim Mushtaq, Sajid Mehmood, Muhammad Zeeshan Hyder PII:
S1477-8939(17)30112-6
DOI:
10.1016/j.tmaid.2017.07.001
Reference:
TMAID 1141
To appear in:
Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease
Received Date: 24 February 2017 Accepted Date: 3 July 2017
Please cite this article as: Mushtaq A, Mehmood S, Hyder MZ, A success story of Pakistan: The country at the verge of winning the battle against polio, Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2017.07.001. This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 1
A success story of Pakistan: The country at the verge of winning the battle against Polio Asim Mushtaq1, Sajid Mehmood1,2*, Muhammad Zeeshan Hyder3 Department of Biochemistry, Islam Medical and Dental College, Sialkot, Pakistan
2
Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Pakkistan
3
Department of Biosciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Park Road, Chak
RI PT
1
Shahzad, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Corresponding Author: [email protected]
SC
*
Polio; Eradication; Pakistan Dear Editor,
M AN U
Keywords
In our previous study, we highlighted important constraints, including religion, politics, unawareness, insecurity, inequity, bad governance and lack of social responsibility in the
TE D
eradication of polio from Pakistan [1]. Despite of all these constrain, however, country has shown great success towards elimination of polio. The number of cases reported from Pakistan in 2014 and 2015 were 304 and 54 respectively, while in 2016, only 20 cases were reported. It is
EP
suggesting a drop of 94% in 2014 and a further drop of 65 % since 2015 [2]. This rapid decline in polio cases is prefiguring polio elimination from Pakistan.
AC C
The last polio vaccination campaign in 2016 targeted approximately 37.2 million children under the age of five years across Pakistan, out of which, a total of 35.19 million (~95%) children have been successfully vaccinated while only 0.46% were reported with Zero Routine dose during the campaign [3]. The vaccination coverage which was never so complete previously due to terrorism and insecurity was almost 95% in first round and about 100% in the subsequent rounds. It resulted in an annual polio prevalence rate to 0.5 cases per million children in 2016 in the country [4].
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 2
The decline in polio cases in Pakistan after 2014 is the result of strategic reforms in governmental policies and management coupled with the continuous struggle by various stake holders. Most importantly, the appropriate awareness campaign targeting parents has resulted in
RI PT
gaining their trust on vaccination and vaccinators and giving a high priority to vaccination for the health and welfare of their own children and community. This area is further augmented by the large support to polio program by religious, medical, broadcasting and local community
SC
leadership associations [4].Secondly, successful involvement of almost 250,000 well provoked, skilled and well supervised personnel to serve their own communities in far-flung mountain
M AN U
villages, riverine areas, deserts, in the countryside and in the cities throughout the year, remained a key factor in this success. Another important factor is a dramatic decrease in the attacks on polio health workers, mainly because of improved security conditions after Operation Zarb-eAzb and government commitments for making Pakistan's polio free [5]. The religious, political
TE D
and community leaders have been emphasized to continue polio eradication campaign and hearten people to react positively to it. The repatriation program for Afghanistan refuges and better management of Pak-Afghanistan boarder has also contributed positively towards Polio
EP
eradication in the country.
The strong willingness of Pakistan for the success of Pak-China economic corridor requires
AC C
sustained peace and security within the country which will positively impact polio comparing and will ensure its eradication. We believe, by looking to the success of strategic reforms made by Pakistan, its recent geo-political and economic endeavors, that the country will likely to be polio free in 2018 and so on. The country is near to eradicate polio as reflected by the least number of polio cases are reported previous year. The end of polio from Pakistan will result in a
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 3
better impact on global health and will also make Pakistan safe to travel so that world may gain from its anticipated economic boom.
There is no conflict of interest for this article.
SC
References
RI PT
Conflict of Interest
M AN U
[1]Mushtaq A, Mehmood S, Rehman MA, Younas A, Rehman MS, Malik MF, et al. Polio in Pakistan: social constraints and travel implications. Travel Med Infect Dis 2015 Oct 31;13(5): 360e6. [2] End polio Pakistan. SENATOR AYESHA ASKS PEI TEAM TO GIVE POLIO THE LAST PUSH. http://www.endpolio.com.pk/media-room/media-releases/427-senator-ayesha-asks-pei-team-togive-polio-the-last-push [3] End polio Pakistan. YEAR'S LAST NATIONWIDE CAMPAIGN CONCLUDES.
TE D
http://www.endpolio.com.pk/media-room/media-releases/418-year-s-last-nationwide-campaignconcludes [4] STAYING THE COURSE TO ERADICATE POLIO
EP
http://www.endpolio.com.pk/media-room/media-releases/422-staying-the-course-to-eradicatepolio [5] Zeeshan Salahudin. How Pakistan Could Eliminate Polio in 2017.
AC C
https://theglobalobservatory.org/2016/12/pakistan-polio-vaccination-taliban/
S1477-8939(17)30112-6
DOI:
10.1016/j.tmaid.2017.07.001
Reference:
TMAID 1141
To appear in:
Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease
Received Date: 24 February 2017 Accepted Date: 3 July 2017
Please cite this article as: Mushtaq A, Mehmood S, Hyder MZ, A success story of Pakistan: The country at the verge of winning the battle against polio, Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2017.07.001. This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 1
A success story of Pakistan: The country at the verge of winning the battle against Polio Asim Mushtaq1, Sajid Mehmood1,2*, Muhammad Zeeshan Hyder3 Department of Biochemistry, Islam Medical and Dental College, Sialkot, Pakistan
2
Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Pakkistan
3
Department of Biosciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Park Road, Chak
RI PT
1
Shahzad, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Corresponding Author: [email protected]
SC
*
Polio; Eradication; Pakistan Dear Editor,
M AN U
Keywords
In our previous study, we highlighted important constraints, including religion, politics, unawareness, insecurity, inequity, bad governance and lack of social responsibility in the
TE D
eradication of polio from Pakistan [1]. Despite of all these constrain, however, country has shown great success towards elimination of polio. The number of cases reported from Pakistan in 2014 and 2015 were 304 and 54 respectively, while in 2016, only 20 cases were reported. It is
EP
suggesting a drop of 94% in 2014 and a further drop of 65 % since 2015 [2]. This rapid decline in polio cases is prefiguring polio elimination from Pakistan.
AC C
The last polio vaccination campaign in 2016 targeted approximately 37.2 million children under the age of five years across Pakistan, out of which, a total of 35.19 million (~95%) children have been successfully vaccinated while only 0.46% were reported with Zero Routine dose during the campaign [3]. The vaccination coverage which was never so complete previously due to terrorism and insecurity was almost 95% in first round and about 100% in the subsequent rounds. It resulted in an annual polio prevalence rate to 0.5 cases per million children in 2016 in the country [4].
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 2
The decline in polio cases in Pakistan after 2014 is the result of strategic reforms in governmental policies and management coupled with the continuous struggle by various stake holders. Most importantly, the appropriate awareness campaign targeting parents has resulted in
RI PT
gaining their trust on vaccination and vaccinators and giving a high priority to vaccination for the health and welfare of their own children and community. This area is further augmented by the large support to polio program by religious, medical, broadcasting and local community
SC
leadership associations [4].Secondly, successful involvement of almost 250,000 well provoked, skilled and well supervised personnel to serve their own communities in far-flung mountain
M AN U
villages, riverine areas, deserts, in the countryside and in the cities throughout the year, remained a key factor in this success. Another important factor is a dramatic decrease in the attacks on polio health workers, mainly because of improved security conditions after Operation Zarb-eAzb and government commitments for making Pakistan's polio free [5]. The religious, political
TE D
and community leaders have been emphasized to continue polio eradication campaign and hearten people to react positively to it. The repatriation program for Afghanistan refuges and better management of Pak-Afghanistan boarder has also contributed positively towards Polio
EP
eradication in the country.
The strong willingness of Pakistan for the success of Pak-China economic corridor requires
AC C
sustained peace and security within the country which will positively impact polio comparing and will ensure its eradication. We believe, by looking to the success of strategic reforms made by Pakistan, its recent geo-political and economic endeavors, that the country will likely to be polio free in 2018 and so on. The country is near to eradicate polio as reflected by the least number of polio cases are reported previous year. The end of polio from Pakistan will result in a
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 3
better impact on global health and will also make Pakistan safe to travel so that world may gain from its anticipated economic boom.
There is no conflict of interest for this article.
SC
References
RI PT
Conflict of Interest
M AN U
[1]Mushtaq A, Mehmood S, Rehman MA, Younas A, Rehman MS, Malik MF, et al. Polio in Pakistan: social constraints and travel implications. Travel Med Infect Dis 2015 Oct 31;13(5): 360e6. [2] End polio Pakistan. SENATOR AYESHA ASKS PEI TEAM TO GIVE POLIO THE LAST PUSH. http://www.endpolio.com.pk/media-room/media-releases/427-senator-ayesha-asks-pei-team-togive-polio-the-last-push [3] End polio Pakistan. YEAR'S LAST NATIONWIDE CAMPAIGN CONCLUDES.
TE D
http://www.endpolio.com.pk/media-room/media-releases/418-year-s-last-nationwide-campaignconcludes [4] STAYING THE COURSE TO ERADICATE POLIO
EP
http://www.endpolio.com.pk/media-room/media-releases/422-staying-the-course-to-eradicatepolio [5] Zeeshan Salahudin. How Pakistan Could Eliminate Polio in 2017.
AC C
https://theglobalobservatory.org/2016/12/pakistan-polio-vaccination-taliban/