Pakistan plans to vaccinate three million children against polio

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan, the worst polio affected country in the world, is making arrangements to give a supplementary dose of Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) to three million children across the country to control the crippling disease that has affected 235 people this year.

The IPV will be administered to the children at the end of November as a supplementary dose while the routine Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) will be given to them as per schedule, the Dawn reported today.

Currently there are two types of vaccines used for the eradication of the polio virus in the world.

The first is the OPV, a liquid in which weak polio virus is included to increase the immunity of a child.

A child having OPV does not transfer the virus to others. The IPV is not a 'live' vaccine and increases the immunity of a person but its carrier can transfer the virus to others.

Decision to use IPV has been taken on recommendation of Independent Monitoring Board (IMB).

The IMB, which works on behalf of the international donor agencies and issues reports on the performances of different countries after every six months, in its earlier report recommended that IPV should also be used to ensure immunity among the children.

A decision had been taken to use IPV as a supplement vaccine because it protected a child even if he had the low immunity level, technical head of the Prime Minister's polio cell Altaf Bosan said.

Polio virus is not only threatening the children of Pakistan but has also become a matter of embarrassment for the country.

Polio is still endemic in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. The World Health Organisation in May imposed travel restriction on Pakistan.

Children in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas cannot be vaccinated as the outlawed Taliban has banned the campaigns since June 2012.