It is also by far the most challenging place in Pakistan to eradicate polio.
Difficulties include the large and frequent movement of people, poor water and sanitation conditions, and pockets of community resistance to vaccination.
In the northwestern part of the city lies Orangi Town.
The fifth largest slum in the world today, it is a tough place to live for the children who run around and play games in the streets outside their homes.
At many points, human waste mixes with drinking water lines.
The quality of potable water is low and filled with pathogens including bacteria and viruses, and it is the main cause of many water-borne illnesses in adults and children, including hepatitis A, acute watery diarrhea and typhoid.
Speaking on 8 May at the opening of the plant, Mr Aziz Memon, Chairman of Pakistan’s National Rotary PolioPlus Committee said: “This is the 15th water filtration plant installed in Pakistan, and the sixth in Karachi, and we will do all that we can with our partners to help raise the community’s standard of living including health.” Dr Shafiq, a representative of Orangi Town, thanked Rotary International for its continuous support of polio eradication in the area.
Combined with vaccination activities, children drinking the clean water provided by the new plant will now have an improved chance to grow up polio-free.
National Chair Aziz Memon said: “Orangi Town is one of the most underprivileged urban slums in Karachi and the supply of safe drinking water will improve health issues of the community and save children from water borne diseases.” He added that “Rotary is making intensified efforts in this impoverished area and has established a Resource Center in Bijli Nagar Orangi Town.” These extra steps towards ensuring that children are safe from disease also help to gain community trust, and form part of Rotary’s work to raise awareness of polio, and overcome vaccine hesitancy.
In 2016, Rotary International contributed over US$ 106 million to polio eradication worldwide, and in Pakistan, Rotarians are at the forefront of the fight against the virus.

Immunization: Rotary Club Calls For Sensitization On Polio Eradication.
As the sub-national immunization plus days commence in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) this week, the Rotary Club of Nigeria has warned that unless more Nigerians, especially those living in the rural areas, are sensitized on the prevention of polio, the ongoing efforts to eradicate the disease might be a mirage.
In a interview with LEADERSHIP in Abuja at the weekend, on the sidelines of July 2017 flag off of immunization plus days, the secretary/Polio chair, Rotary Club of Abuja Federal Capital Territory (District 9125), Rtn Ndidi Uchuno expressed shock that many rural communities in the FCT do not have access to good drinking water, while some share the same drinking water with cattle.
Uchuno explained that the club has discovered, through its visits to rural communities in FCT, that many residents are ignorant of the causes and prevention of polio.
“To eradicate polio, the communities need to be informed through advocacies, because when they are aware of the symptoms they can easily reach out for medical attention.
We have to go into the communities and explain to them the need for polio eradication.
We also go around explaining to them the essence of the vaccines ahead of the days for the vaccination.
We have gone generally lecturing and explaining to the communities on the symptoms of the disease, asking them to contact us or any of the health officials any time they see certain signs in their babies,” she said.
She added that the club has visited Sabon Lugbe community in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), which is her primary location, while efforts are being made to construct boreholes in the area, so that the people could have good source of drinking water.
The post Immunization: Rotary Club Calls For Sensitization On Polio Eradication appeared first on leadership.ng.

Suspected cholera cases in Yemen Two years of intense conflict have exacted a heavy toll on the country’s health system, as well as on water and sanitation services, and we’re entering the peak season for the spread of diarrhoeal diseases in Yemen.
Cases of the disease have been confirmed in 19 of the country’s 23 governorates WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are honing in on areas reporting the highest number of cases to stop the disease from spreading further.
Cholera vaccination?
The use of the oral cholera vaccine (OCV) is just one of the tools available to combat outbreaks.
Many aspects should be considered before a vaccination campaign: access to the people and places where the cholera is present, logistical constrains (for example availability of cold chain to store the vaccines safely), availability of the vaccines ( we have a worldwide stockpiles of 2 millions cholera vaccines to respond to many outbreak of choldra in different countries).
Treatment?
More information here: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2017/suspected-cholera-yeme… http://who.int/hac/crises/yem/en/ Circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus confirmed in Syria http://polioeradication.org/news-post/circulating-vaccine-derived-poliov… A circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) outbreak has been confirmed in the Deir-Ez-Zor Governorate of the Syrian Arab Republic.
The detection of the cases demonstrates that disease surveillance systems are functional in Syria.
This outbreak was successfully stopped; the now-detected cVDPV2 strain is unrelated to the WPV1 outbreak.
OPV has been a critical tool in eliminating 99.9% of polio cases worldwide, and while cVDPV is rare, the GPEI is actively working with countries to eradicate both vaccine-derived and wild polio.