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Thursday March 28, 2024

Pak-Afghan teams gear up to work jointly for polio-free region

By our correspondents
September 22, 2016

Islamabad

Polio teams of Pakistan and Afghanistan Wednesday agreed to the need for improving the cross-border coordination mechanism to push poliovirus to the final finish line.

The teams had in Islamabad to deliberate on mutual challenges and issues faced by both countries during the course of polio eradication. The meeting was organised in the backdrop of the recent outbreak in the south Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa/FATA and southeastern Afghanistan block. The basic objective of the meeting was to review the eradication status in the common polio reservoirs and epidemiological block, and to undertake joint planning to address the outbreaks. 

Chairing the meeting, the Prime Minister’s focal person for polio Ayesha Raza Farooq and Dr. Hidayatullah Satenkzai, national polio focal person of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health, agreed on closing remaining coordination gaps at the provincial, regional, and district levels; developing specific plans to strengthen quality of Sub-National Immunisation Activities and micro-synchronisation along the border; mapping and strengthening vaccination of high-risk mobile population, and achieving eradication-level AFP surveillance indicators.

Dr. Hidayatullah underscored the need to screen all mobile population for anti-polio vaccination as over one million people cross the border formally. He appreciated the joint teamwork of Pakistan and Afghanistan anti-polio teams and emphasised polio eradication as a collective responsibility over and above any political difference. 

Ayesha Raza stressed on improving campaign and surveillance quality, and coverage of high-risk mobile populations. “Potential missed children and missed polio circulation should be taken as a serious risk to our goal,” she maintained. 

Sharing updates from the programme, Ayesha apprised the meeting of the latest expansion of community-based vaccination as planned in Karachi, Peshawar/Khyber and the Quetta block, covering almost 3.3 million children; launch of the Mobile Team Action Plan in northern Sindh, parts of Karachi and southern KP to further strengthen all aspects of micro-planning; team selection, composition and work burdens; and supportive supervision before, during and after campaigns. 

Dr. Rana Muhammad Safdar, national coordinator of the National Emergency Operations Centre raised concern over the immunity gap in North and South Waziristan and southeastern Afghanistan that allowed the virus to transmit over a wide geographical area between Hangu through D.I. Khan up to southeast Afghanistan. Dr. Rana also highlighted that all polio cases in South Waziristan and southeastern Afghanistan are zero dose and are among mobile populations, especially returning displaced populations.

Presenting the guiding principles for progress, Dr. Rana shared that full-time vaccinators will now cover 100% of the target population in Quetta block and Khyber-Peshawar and 67% of Karachi. Moreover, 9 bOPV SIAs have been planned, while a full-dose combined bOPV/IPV round will be implemented in January-February 2017 in both core reservoir and high risk districts. Strengthening of Routine Immunisation to further decrease the fraction of under-immunised children, which is highest among children less than one years, is also underway. “PTPs have been prioritised with especial focus given to transnational and interprovincial posts while monitoring and evaluation activities including expanded LQAS, third-party pre/intra/post-campaign monitoring are further enhanced,” added Dr. Rana.

“Under our surveillance for eradication plan, the programme is improving surveillance by focusing attention on missed AFP cases and missed transmission,” further said. 

The meeting also paved the way for operational discussion among regional and district teams, which agreed on common strategies during the upcoming campaign as well as optimal vaccination of high-risk mobile population.