Polio still a cause for concern in Pakistan

(Vatican Radio) A new study has found that polio eradication efforts are not reaching the most vulnerable in certain areas of Pakistan. The findings published this month in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization shows that polio can be stamped out more quickly if national programmes reach out to high-risk groups, such as the Pashtun communities in Karachi, and engage with them.

“You will find polio always among the least served populations and in Pakistan it’s been a question of reaching these populations with good operations, with good vaccination campaigns, finding them and accessing them”, says Sona Bari, WHO Spokesperson for polio eradication.

She told Lydia O’Kane, “it’s really a question of reaching the children who are most marginalized and least reached and that’s where Pakistan has struggled up ‘til now and has made a huge turnaround in this past year.”

Sona Bari also says that it is sometimes the case that parents do not want to have their children vaccinated, but adds that the percentage is small in Pakistan.

Pakistan as well as Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only countries in the world where polio is endemic.

Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that mainly affects young children causing paralysis and, in a small proportion of cases, death. Listen to Lydia O’Kane's interview with Sona Bari