Polio vaccination should be supported

VACCINATION of children under five against polio has intensified in the provinces of Madang, Morobe and Eastern Highlands.
This came into effect after the Government declared polio a national public health emergency.
Papua New Guinea has not had a case of wild poliovirus since 1996, and the country was certified as polio-free in 2000 along with the rest of the WHO Western Pacific Region – until last month.
On May 21, the regional polio reference laboratory reported to WHO the isolation of vaccine derived poliovirus type 1 (VDPV1) from a child with acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) in Lae, Morobe. The start of the child’s paralysis occurred on April 24.
In response, enhanced surveillance and active case finding were implemented, including the collection of stool samples from household and community contacts of the index case.
On June 20, the regional polio reference laboratory notified WHO of the isolation of VDPV1 from the stools of two healthy community contacts of the index case.
These results were sent to the global polio reference laboratory at the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) and it was confirmed on June 21 that those two isolates are genetically linked to the index case, indicating the circulation of poliovirus within the community.
Polio is a potentially deadly disease which can spread through communities, causing paralysis. Children are most at risk.
The virus is transmitted by person-to-person and spread mainly through the faecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle (for example, contaminated water or food) and multiplies in the intestine.
Initial symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness of the neck and pain in the limbs. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis (usually in the legs).
In response to the detection of poliovirus in the index case, mop-up vaccination was undertaken in Lae where the case lives and in Eastern Highlands where the case had stayed prior to onset of paralysis. Travel warning has been issued by several countries relating to the polio outbreak in Morobe last month.
Last month, PNG citizens and other people travelling to Australia were advised that they were now required to show proof of polio vaccination in their Australian visa application forms. That approach, we are told, is consistent with World Health Organisation advice for countries affected by polio.
The United States Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention also warned its citizens to be fully vaccinated against polio before travelling to PNG.
CDC released a Level 2 travel warning for PNG regarding the recent outbreak of polio. The embassy reported that, the World Health Organisation currently recommends all residents and long-term visitors in PNG to receive a dose of oral polio vaccine (OPV) or inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) booster between four weeks and 12 months prior to international travel. As proof of vaccination, travelers should carry an official certificate of vaccination or the World Health Organisation International Certificate of Vaccination (yellow booklet).
In PNG, only 30 per cent of children are immunised. Having a low immunisation coverage rate means a high percentage of children are not protected against preventable diseases such as measles, pneumonia, tuberculosis, whooping cough, hepatitis B, diphtheria and meningitis including polio. This is definitely not good news.
And that has led to an increase in deaths of children under five from vaccine-preventable diseases.
The wheels for change in immunisation must turn and turn in the right direction and accelerate speed to get the coverage gap to reach the 95 per cent or even 100 per cent or closer.
There is an urgent need for redoubled efforts on the part of all those involved in the vaccination campaigns, whether it is the vaccinators themselves, those that have taken up the task of advocacy and spreading awareness, or the national and international bodies providing the vaccine and critical funding.