Pakistan, one of three
countries with endemic polio, began an immunization campaign this week in the
city of Quetta for children under five after the discovery of a rare strain of
the virus in sewage samples, officials said.
Thomson
Reuters Foundation report continues:
No
cases of the rare Type 2 strain have been reported in humans in Quetta but it
has been added to the vaccine as a precaution. The more common type of polio is
Type 1, with no human cases of Type 2 reported for more than a decade.
Here
are some more facts on polio:
*
Poliomyelitis, or polio, is a viral disease of the brain and spinal cord that
can cause irreversible paralysis in a matter of hours.
*
There is no cure for polio, it can only be prevented. Polio vaccine, given
multiple times, can protect a child for life. Vaccines can be oral or injected.
*
The virus is transmitted from person to person through the ingestion of faeces
from contaminated hands, food or water.
*
Polio mainly affects children under five years of age. One in 200 infections
leads to irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs.
*
Among those paralyzed, 5 percent to 10 percent die when their breathing muscles
become immobilized.
*
There were 35 reported polio cases at the end of 2016 compared with 350,000
cases in 1988.
*
Pakistan is one of just three countries in the world, along with Afghanistan
and Nigeria that have endemic polio, a once-common childhood virus that can
cause paralysis or death.
*
Immunization efforts in Pakistan have in the past been hampered by Islamist
militants who believed the campaigns were a cover for Western spies.
*
As long as one child remains infected, all children are at risk. If polio is
not completely eradicated, 200,000 new cases each year could crop up within 10
years globally.
Source: Reuters, World
Health Organization, Global Polio Eradication Initiative
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