Special polio drive from 9th in 15 districts

LAHORE:A special immunisation campaign is being launched from September 9, targeting 13.9 million children in the 15 districts. The campaign will continue for seven days in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad while in other districts the campaign will last five days.

Head of the polio programme in Punjab and Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) Coordinator Khizer Afzaal shared this information on Wednesday while presiding over a polio campaign readiness meeting of District Health Management Teams (DHMTs) of 15 districts, including Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Attock, Chakwal, Multan, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Muzaffargarh, DG Khan, Rajanpur, RY Khan, Okara, Sheikhupura and Gujranwala.

Addressing the participants, the EOC coordinator noted that Punjab has reported its first polio case in August. Positive environmental samples suggest that there are unvaccinated children after every polio campaign, he underscored.

The EOC coordinator noted intense virus circulation indicated no place was safe from virus and our children were at heightened risk. In such a situation, he warned of strict action against health officials persistently showing poor performance in polio campaigns. He directed the district health officials to work on covering missed children during the campaigns, especially on the same days.

The EOC coordinator called upon provincial monitors to beef up monitoring in catch-up days and submit detailed reports to the EOC in case they find evidence of lackluster performances. “Instead of bragging about data accuracy, the District Health Management Teams need to find out ways to reach out and vaccinate those children”, he underscored.

The EOC coordinator showed concern over sub-optimal micro-planning by the district officials and polio workers. He urged the DHMTs to do some soul searching and conduct regular analysis of gaps and loopholes during and after the polio campaigns.

“The district and tehsil health officials need to meet face to face with polio workers before every campaign and iron out challenges as well strategies to overcome them”, the EOC coordinator underlined.

The head of the polio programme reiterated his concern about lack of government holding accountable persons and polio teams, saying despite repeated reminders districts have not reduced number of volunteers.

District health officials briefed the EOC head about measures taken to improve quality of campaigns like introduction of new colour schemes in micro-plans to identify missed children in repeated rounds and measures taken to focus on their coverage.

The Punjab EOC head noted that data accuracy was red line of the programme and in case any official or worker was found faking data, strict action will be taken against him. He urged health officials to not hide real issues from the Deputy Commissioners.

During the meeting the EOC coordinator instructed provincial polio officials to prepare pro forma of meetings and share it with the DHMTs so that same format of meetings is followed during the evening meetings.