Three-day anti-polio drive kicks off today

Health authorities aim to vaccinate 2.2 million children in 188 union councils

of Karachi, 6.2 million in other districts of province

Sindh’s first anti-polio campaign this year will start on Monday (today) wherein the health authorities aim at vaccinating 8.4 million children under five years of age.

Of them, 2.2 million children will be vaccinated in 188 union councils of Karachi. Around 6.2 million other children will be vaccinated in other districts of the province.

In Karachi, at least 5,000 police personnel will be deployed to provide security to over 12,000 polio vaccinators.

Sindh Emergency Operation Centre coordinator Fayaz Jatoi said there would be a strong monitoring mechanism for the campaign.

“There have been major improvements in the programme in the last few years with polio cases reducing from 306 cases in 2014 to 20 in 2016,” he added.

“But these 20 cases are too many and our goal is to reach zero cases. For this, we must not only further improve the programme, but also actively work to overcome the challenges that remain.”

‘Polio-free province’

At a meeting on January 9, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had vowed to turn Sindh into a polio-free province soon.

The Sindh Emergency Operation Centre coordinator had told the chief minister that during 2016, 19 polio cases were reported all over Pakistan, of them eight in Sindh, eight in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, two in FATA, one in Balochistan and none in Punjab. He added that out of eight cases of Sindh, seven were in the rural areas and one in Karachi.

Shah was also told that in 2015 there were 54 polio cases in the country, of which 12 were in Sindh, 17 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 16 in FATA, seven in Balochistan and two in Punjab.

On this, the chief minster said that it was unfortunate that Sindh had shown negligible progress.

The participants of the meeting were informed that in the immunisation campaign launched in September and December last year, the target was to cover 2.2 million children in Karachi and 6.1 million in the rural areas of the province. In the city around 2.6 percent children were unavailable at the time of immunisation, while the parents of 1.7 percent had refused the vaccine.

On this Shah expressed displeasure, saying that it was the responsibility of the district administration to ensure 100 percent coverage of the immunisation drive.

The meeting was also told that the staffs of the health facilities under the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation were reluctant to participate in anti-polio and other EPI activities.

It was also pointed out that Landhi union council-1 and UC-2, Site UC-9 and Baldia UC-2 were at high risk because of lack of health facilities, while there were non-functional hospitals in Gadap UC-4, including the Janat Gul Hospital.

On this the chief executive directed the chief secretary to talk to the KMC administration and direct its staff to ensure proper participation in the immunisation drive, otherwise action would be taken against them.

It was also disclosed that at the Sujawal Hospital there were no district health officers and those posted in Matiari and Jamshoro were near retirement. The chief minister was also told that the DHOs of Ghotki and Kamber were holding dual posts.

On this, Shah directed the health minister to fill the vacant positions of DHOs on a priority basis, adding that those who were retiring should be replaced on timely basis and the dual charges should be taken away from the DHOs to post genuine officers.

The chief minister noted that there were only 2,200 ice-lined refrigerators and because of prolonged power outages polio vaccines were becoming ineffective.

Coastal belt cases

On December 14 last year, a child in Sindh’s Badin district was tested positive for the disease.

Fayaz Jatoi said two other polio cases were reported in the coastal belt of Sindh, one in Sajawal and the other in Badin, in November

However, he added that these were “last-ditch efforts by the polio virus which was now moving to areas where immunity among children was very low”.

A country can only be declared polio-free if no polio case is reported for at least three consecutive years. In Pakistan’s case, this seems to be an uphill task as despite a drastic decrease in the number of cases as compared to previous years, a total of 19 cases have been reported in different parts of the country this year.

Polio eradication officials are carrying out extensive vaccination drives in the country but they have failed to wipe out the disease.

The rate of routine immunisation of children is extremely low in Sindh’s rural districts and coupled with low immunity because of malnutrition, the problem grows worse.

Jatoi said vaccination campaigns in the coastal belt would end the virus circulation in that region.

He added that they had captured the virus “by its neck” and now were concentrating on areas which were considered non high-risk.

“The job needs to be finished by securing the entire coastal belt in the province immediately.”

The official said when polio is about to be eradicated, the virus fights for its survival and travels to areas where you least expect it and that was the case in Badin.

“It will also attack children suffering from malnutrition and low immunity.”

‘Major progress’

Jatoi maintained that Sindh had made major progress in stopping polio transmission. “The environmental samples are now clear in Sindh and it shows the progress we have made.”

 The official said Karachi and northern Sindh were the high-risk areas for polio and the virus circulation there had been stopped. “The virus, which is now fighting for its survival, will go to places it traditionally doesn’t and there we will close it down,” he added.

 “The programme is moving in the right direction and it has been appreciated by international partners. If we continue like this, there is no doubt we will rid ourselves of polio.”

Population officers to assist

Provincial Population Welfare Mir Mumtaz Hussain Jakhrani said on Sunday that he had directed all district population officers and medical officers at the reproductive health services centers to assist the polio vaccinators during the three-day campaign.

The minister said he would personally monitor the campaign. “The population welfare department is an active partner of this campaign and ready to provide all its resources for it,” he added.