Over 300,000 children could not be vaccinated in September

As many as 118,557 parents refused to get their children vaccinated against polio and over 96,000 other children could be given the vaccine in Karachi alone as they were not present at home during the last vaccination drive in September.

These disturbing figures were shared with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah at a meeting at the CM House on Tuesday by a top official at the province’s Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) for Polio Eradication.

“Over 215,000 children could not be vaccinated due to refusal of their parents or unavailability of children at their homes in Karachi,” said EOC Coordinator Fayyaz Jatoi.

Chaired by the chief minister, the meeting of the provincial taskforce for polio eradication was attended by Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Ali Shah, Principal Secretary to CM Sajid Jamal Abro, the provincial secretaries of local government and health, Karachi Commissioner Sauleh Farooqui, Karachi police chief Dr Ameer Shaikh, WHO team leader Dr Abdi Rehman, Unicef team leader Lieven Desomer, BMGF team leader Dr Altaf Bosan, Rotary International Chair Aziz Memon, all divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners of Karachi and other officials concerned.

Over 94,875 children could not be vaccinated against polio in the drive last month in Sindh, as more than 88,000 of them were not available at home, and 6,411 parents refused to cooperate.

In addition, polio virus was found present in sewage samples of four places in Karachi, including Sohrab Goth of Gadap, Chakora Nalla of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Mohammad Khan Colony of Baldia, Orangi Nala of SITE -- and six sites in Jacobabad district in September.

Despite the bleak scenario presented by the EOC officials, the chief minister reiterated his resolve to eradicate polio and measles from the province by intensifying vaccination campaigns and launching awareness drives.

He said frequent positive environmental samples in Jacobabad and Kamber were not a good sign. He added that the reasons may be seasonal population movement to and from Karachi and Quetta and drought-related population displacement from Tharparkar and Umerkot to other parts of the province.

Shah directed the taskforce to devise a strategy to control the situation accordingly. He said the leadership of the deputy commissioners was required more now than ever before because they were present in the field. “I want you [DCs] to control increasing community resistance to the polio vaccination.”

The chief minister directed Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho to improve the performance of the district and taluka health officers in some districts like Malir, West, Central, Jacobabad, Kamber, Sujawal and Matirai, where frequent positive environmental samples were found.

He also expressed his displeasure at inadequate support from the directorate of private schools and directed the education department to talk to them to cooperate with polio teams in administering vaccine to children; otherwise, strict action would be taken against them.

Measles cases

The meeting was told that the measles cases had shown an increase during last four years. In 2015, 1,175 measles suspected cases were reported, of them 281 were found confirmed and eight patients died.

In 2016, out of 3,421 suspected cases, 1,729 were found confirmed, and 19 died. In 2017, 5,779 suspected cases were tested, of them 3,086 found confirmed and 35 died, and in 2018 suspected cases increased to 7,778, of them 788 have been confirmed and 122 died.

The chief minister said the situation was quite alarming and there should a thorough investigation into causes of the measles outbreak. The health department must do its investigative work and simultaneously a vigorous and focused campaign for measles vaccination be launched, he said.

“We should improve our health indicators by taking multi-sectorial interventions. Necessary improvements may be made in nutrition, provision of clean drinking water and waste management and to educate people about health issues.” Shah said he was trying his best to make Sindh a healthy, wealthy and cleaner Sindh, and urged everyone within the government and in the civil society to support him to achieve the goals.