Expats join bid to keep polio at bay

TEN international experts and 200 local staff are involved in the campaign to arrest the spread of polio in the country.
The experts and locals are carrying out intensified surveillance of suspected cases in Chimbu, Jiwaka, Western Highlands, Madang, Morobe and National Capital District. This is part of the immunisation campaign currently underway in Madang, Morobe and Eastern Highlands.
The joint Health Department and World Health Organisation (WHO) team is also working to identify potential sampling sites, especially in Lae and Port Moresby.
They are helping with intensifying surveillance measures to improve the detection of acute flaccid paralysis and polio virus.
Investigation is being made to find any suspected cases of acute flaccid paralysis. The samples are sent to Victorian Infectious Disease Reference Laboratory in Melbourne, Australia, for testing.
Executive manager public health and national coordinator polio response Dr Sibauk Bieb said the surveillance was basically to detect acute flaccid paralysis, a type of paralysis that could develop through contact with an infected person.
Bieb said they collected samples of stools and send them to the public health laboratory in Port Moresby which sends the samples to Melbourne for testing.