Pakistan Takes Steps to Enforce Polio Immunization

The Health Minister of Pakistan has declared that his country is establishing mandatory polio immunization and reinoculation check-points at all its international airports, hoping to stop the spread of wild poliovirus beyond its borders.

This announcement was made not even 24 hours after the World Health Organization (WHO) identified Pakistan as one of three countries that has allowed polio to spread across its borders into neighboring countries. The WHO declared this spread as an "extraordinary event" and an international health emergency that warranted immediate action.

According to the WHO announcement on Monday, an Emergency Committee from the United Nation's health organization convened on April 28 and April 29 via teleconference to discuss the apparent spread of poliovirus, which was first identified on April 26.

Pakistan, Cameroon, and the Syrian Arab Republic all reportedly allowed instances of the poliovirus to spread to Afghanistan, Equatorial Guinea, and Iraq respectively. However, Pakistan appears to be the first of these countries to immediately react to a series of new WHO regulations released along with the Emergency Committee's world health warning on Monday.

Sajid Ali Shah, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry of Pakistan told reporters in Islamabad that the Pakistani Government would be taking immediate action in response to the recommendations made by WHO and would be promising the mandatory immunization and reinoculation of its traveling citizens.

Immunization check-points are reportedly going to be established at all international airports, border crossings, and seaports to help enforce the country's state of immunity.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the poliovirus, which can cause fatal damage to the nervous system and paralysis in children, was eradicated in the Western Hemisphere and the Majority of Europe and Asia decades ago thanks to global efforts to promote immunization.

However, war-torn regions of the world have never been fully freed of the poliovirus and instead must take actions to keep the disease from spreading internationally once more.