Impact of COVID-19 on polio vaccination in Pakistan: a concise overview.
Rev Med Virol
; 31(4): e2190, 2021 07.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-917104
ABSTRACT
The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disrupted immunization programs around the globe, potentially increasing life-threatening vaccine-preventable diseases. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries, which are still struggling to eradicate wild poliovirus. All vaccination campaigns in Pakistan were suspended in April due to the COVID-19 outbreak, leading 40 million children to miss out on polio vaccination. Like the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic could be regarded as a child-rights crisis because it could have life-threatening impact over children, who need immunization, now and in the long-term. Delays in polio vaccination programs might not have immediate impact but, in the long-term, the increase in polio cases in Pakistan could result in the global export of infections. Therefore, healthcare authorities must intensify their efforts to track and vaccinate unvaccinated children in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan. Polio vaccination campaigns need to resume immediately, so we suggest applying social distancing measures along with standard operating procedure to flatten the transmission curve of COVID-19. Furthermore, the concurrent emergence of cVDPV2 means that tOPV should temporarily be used for primary immunization. In the current review, we have discussed delays in polio vaccination, surveillance of polio viruses, reported cases in Pakistan along with recommendations to overcome interrupted immunization.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Poliomyelitis
/
Poliovirus Vaccine, Oral
/
Immunization Programs
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
Rev Med Virol
Journal subject:
Virology
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Rmv.2190
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