Islamabad May 22, 2015 - Pakistan has witnessed 70 % reduction in polio cases this year. In terms of point in time comparison, there is 70% reduction in cases from 78 in 2014 to just 23 polio cases in 2015.

National EOC Coordinator, Dr. Rana Muhammad Safdar while commenting on the positive progress of the Polio Program mentioned that the reduction in polio cases was made possible due to a paradigm shift at tactical and strategy level of the program. Program is now focusing on high quality campaigns and pockets of continued missed children who pose a serious risk for poliovirus transmission if not tracked properly.

Dr. Rana Muhammad Safdar further added that the number of inaccessible children has been reduced from over 600,000 to less than 50,000 only and the cumulative coverage has gone up from 94% in 2014 to over 99% in 2015.

Recently held meeting of the Independent Monitoring Board – IMB has also expressed its appreciation over the recent steps of the Government of Pakistan including post campaign monitoring through LQAS and 3rd Party monitoring that is showing gross quality enhancement. IMB also declares the recent negative environmental samples from reservoir areas of Karachi and Killa Abdulla as a great achievement of the Pakistan Program.

In 2014, FATA alone reported 179 cases but in 2015 due to effective strategies of the Government in reaching out the children caused optimum vaccination drives and dip in polio cases to 6 cases. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported 68 cases from 12 districts in 2014 while in 2015, only 10 cases are reported from 5 districts so far. 4 polio cases from 3 districts in Sindh has been reported this year as compare to 30 cases from 15 districts last year. Balochistan, on the hand, had reported 24 cases from 9 districts in 2014 and this year 3 cases has been surfaced from 3 districts. Punjab is polio case free at this point in time as compare to 4 cases last year.