IPH prepares SOPs for monkeypox

LAHORE: Institute of Public Health (IPH) completed the task given by the Punjab Health Department to prepare Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) on Monkeypox in 15 days in the light of National Institute of Health and World Health Organisation guidelines.

Institute of Public Health Dean Prof Dr Zarfashan Tahir said that the SoPs have been sent to the Health Department. The Health Department will notify the above SoPs and share them with all the stakeholders for monkeypox diagnosis, treatment, case management, sample collection of suspected patients. Through these SoPs, the people concerned of all the hospitals and other institutions can get awareness about taking samples, decontamination of the ward after the discharge of the patient from the hospital.

Dr Zarfashan informed that the said the public health experts of the institute have given their input with great effort and professionalism for the preparation of 138 pages SoPs. She said that the IPH efforts to develop SOPs had been appreciated by the ministers and secretaries of the health department.

She further said that the government had designated IPH as the focal institute for monkeypox and a disease warning centre had been established in the institute and training has been imparted to 300 health professionals from government hospitals, Rescue-1122, Airport Health Department, Border Health Services Pakistan and other related institutions.

Over 3m children vaccinated against polio in 12 districts: Polio teams continued to go door-to-door to vaccinate children as the ongoing special polio eradication drive entered second day on Tuesday.

One the first day of the campaign, more than three million children have been vaccinated in the 12 districts where campaign is being held. More than 120,000 children were vaccinated in Bhakkar on the first day of the campaign, while in Dera Ghazi Khan, Faisalabad and Lahore, more than 256,000, 353,000 and 438,000 children were vaccinated respectively.

In Layyah, Mianwali, Multan and Muzaffargarh, more than 139,000, 108,000, 326,000 and 336,000 children were vaccinated, in Rajanpur, Rawalpindi, RY Khan and Sheikhupura, 143,000, 216,000, 368,000, and 243,000 children were vaccinated respectively.

In his statement, head of the polio programme in Punjab Khizer Afzaal reiterated that campaign was being held to eradicate virus from Pakistan.

‘Campaign is being held in the affected districts. Some of the districts where virus was detected in the last six months have been made part of the campaign. These districts include Lahore, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad. Some other districts which are part of the campaign are vulnerable due to high-risk mobile population movement’, the EOC head pointed out. ‘The intermittent detection of virus in the environmental samples proves that Punjab is at the risk of imported virus circulation’, he added. The Sub-National Immunisation Days (SNIDs) commenced on Monday. The campaign is being held in 12 districts of Punjab including Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Bhakkar, DG Khan, Layyah, Mianwali, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur, Rahim Yar Khan and Sheikhupura. In Lahore, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad, the campaign will continue for seven days. While in other districts the campaign will last five days.