Measures afoot to bolster polio drive in capital

Islamabad

Special instructions were issued Wednesday to bolster the polio drive in Islamabad, a city which urgently needs to improve its current coverage of 84 percent. Human resource gaps, inadequate focus on the high-risk Union Councils of the city, and missed children in sectors E-11, F-11 and G-13 were some of the areas that were earmarked for extra vigilance during the upcoming July campaign.

Presiding over a polio review meeting, Minister of State for Health Saira Afzal called urgent steps to fill human resource gaps in the polio campaign She highlighted the need for concerted focus on the 12 high-risk Union Councils of Islamabad, with additional human resource and constitution of special monitoring teams comprising senior
officials. “I will personally the visit the UCs in Islamabad to check preparedness for the polio campaign and review each aspect,” Saira stated.

The polio management was asked to ensure that sectors E-11, F-11 and G-13 are covered with additional focus so that no child is missed, and that each home is properly marked as evidence of polio teams visiting the house for immunization. It was also directed to organize special vaccination for polio and routine immunization in the high-risk UCs.

Islamabad city has been reporting 84 percent coverage in polio campaigns, which needs to be enhanced on an urgent basis. Micro-plans of all UCs need to be updated so that each household and mobile population is mapped and covered. Moreover, each polio team must maintain a list of all missed children during every campaign so that they are covered in the subsequent campaign.

Earlier, a detailed technical analysis of Islamabad’s polio campaigns was presented to the meeting by the National Coordinator for Polio Emergency.

The meeting was attended by officials of CDA including Member Planning, Director General Human Resource, along with Additional Secretary CADD, Additional Deputy Commissioner Islamabad, health administration of CDA and representatives of GHQ. Secretary Health, Additional Secretary Health and DG Health were also present.