Kathmandu, October 24

World Polio Day was marked today by organising various awareness programmes.

World Health Organisation had declared Nepal polio-free country in 2014, but due to open border with India, Nepal is facing challenges to control cases of imported polio.

In a bid to eradicate polio completely, infants have been given two doses of inactivated polio vaccine into routine immunisation schedule from mid-August this year.

Acting on the recommendation made by WHO, the government has started administering fractional dose of polio vaccine to children. Earlier, the government introduced one dose of IPV into routine immunisation schedule in the 14th week which consists 0.5 ml dose. Now, every infant must be given 0.1 ml dose of IPV in the sixth week and 14th week, and they have to be given oral polio vaccine three times, informed Dr Badri Raj Pandey, chairman of the National Certification Committee for Polio Eradication.

“Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. It invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours. The virus is transmitted from person-to-person and spreads mainly through the faecal-oral route or, less frequently, through contaminated water or food. Initial symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness of the neck and pain in the limbs,” said Dr Pandey. He said polio mainly affected children under five years of age and there was no cure for polio, but could be prevented through vaccination.

According to WHO, as long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio. Failure to eradicate polio from these last remaining strongholds could result in as many as 200,000 new cases every year. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two nations yet to be declared polio-free in the world.  In 2005, four polio cases were detected in areas bordering India and increased to 20 by 2008. No cases were reported in 2009 while six cases were reported in 2010.