Divided Kashmir achieves common goal separately

Haroon Mirani

Srinagar, February 25, 2008:

Polio immunisation progamme in Srinagar

While India and Pakistan are grappling to contain polio, both India and Pakistan administered Kashmir's have announced their success in containing the viral disease.

No case of polio has been reported from the two parts of Kashmir for the past seven years.

The health officials here, however are not taking any chances and efforts for polio immunisation has not been lowered.

On February 24, 1.85 million children in Indian administered Kashmir were administered pulse polio drops.

Forty thousand personnel from the health and Social Welfare Department were deployed at 9789 pulse polio centers across the state.

Health officials in the region recently announced that for the past seven years they haven’t come across any case of polio.

Pakistan administered Kashmir (PaK) too has not reported any polio case since 2000. The Federally Administered Northern Areas in Pakistan administered Kashmir are polio free since 1998, making it one of the earliest region to attain the status.

India which has around 60 percent of the global polio cases, launched a country wide Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme in 1995.

The number of polio cases registered in India was 66 in 2005, 676 in 2006 and 844 in 2007 and this year 21 cases have been registered all over the country

For 2007, 32 cases have been reported in Pakistan 8 fewer than the same period last year.

In December 2006, a police case was reported from the Jammu province of Indian administered Kashmir.

But the victim later turned out to be non-Kashmiri girl of a migrant labourer family from the western Indian state of Rajasthan.

Located on the northern side of Indian subcontinent Jammu and Kashmir is divided by a line of control with portions divided between India and Pakistan since 1947.

Pakistan, along with India, Afghanistan and Nigeria are major polio affected regions in the world.

Polio mainly affects children under the age of five.

It is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus and mainly spreads from the faecal-oral route, invading the nervous system and paralysing the victim.

As per WHO guidelines, the polio virus is considered eradicated if no case is reported for three years after achieving the status of zero level.

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