Polio outbreak hits Swat children

Polio cases have been rising in Pakistan’s troubled Swat region, because children have not been vaccinated for a year. Thirteen cases of the potentially fatal disease have been reported in the area over the past four months, according to health officials, who on Monday started a fast-track three day anti-polio drive.

Sixty-two cases of polio have been confirmed so far this year in Pakistan, with 13 in Swat District, according to local health officials. "The Swat District currently has a polio outbreak,” Melissa Corkum, polio programme coordination specialist with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) told the United Nations news service. “However, the good news is that we were able to immunize children who had left these areas. Upon their return we were able to immunize a significant proportion of children," she said.

Because of its time under Taliban control, there are still some families in Swat who believe the Taliban propaganda that Polio drops can make their children infertile. Similar beliefs are held in areas outside Swat too, with parents occasionally refusing to allow their children to be inoculated. But the majority of people there are conscious that their children have missed out on jabs and are keen to get them vaccinated in this latest campaign. “The militants have been depriving our children of our basic right, Swat resident Yar Mohammad told Associated Press news agency. “It is our national responsibility to secure our kids against all diseases,” said Mohammad, who lives in the valley’s main city, Mingora.

Polio has been wiped out in most countries. But in Pakistan, Nigeria, Afghanistan and India people still catch it regularly, according to the World Health Organisation. The disease mostly strikes children under age 5 and is spread when people come into contact with the virus. It usually attacks the nervous system, causing paralysis, deformation and sometimes death.The army says it has killed more than 1,800 suspected militants in Swat since its latest attack there four months ago. The government is now trying to bring the valley back to normal and many people forced out of the region by fighting have returned home. But violence still is a regular occurrence in the northwest.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children