18pc children not vaccinated against polio in Sindh

Polio eradication initiative officials have failed to meet their target of reaching the required number of children under the age of five years as 18 percent children were either missed or their parents refused to get their children vaccinated during the last vaccination drive in Karachi, officials have confirmed to The News.

“As against the target of 1.5 million children, only 1.28 million children could be approached for administering them Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) drops during the last vaccination drive in Karachi. This means that only 82 percent children were given OPV drops while 18 percent were either missed or their parents refused to get their children have polio vaccine drops,” an official of the Sindh health department conceded on Wednesday.

Polio eradication initiative officials had planned to vaccinate around 5.5 million children in 26 districts of Sindh, including six districts of Karachi, from June 17 to 20 in the interior of Sindh and from June 17 to 23, 2019, in all the six districts of Karachi, but they failed to meet the target set by them in Karachi where as many as 245,000 children could not be vaccinated against polio during the drive.

Ironically, of the three polio cases from Sindh this year so far, two are from Karachi, including one from Lyari and the other from the Abul Hasan Asfahani road. Of the two polio cases of Karachi, the father of one toddler refused to get his child vaccinated, which led to the boy’s permanent disability at the hand of polio virus.

“Unfortunately, more than 245,000 children could not be vaccinated during the last polio vaccination drive, of which parents of 130,000 refused to get their children vaccinated while the remaining children were not available at their addresses,” the official of the Sindh government said.

According to official data available with The News, over 81,320 children could not be vaccinated against polio during the current drive, of which parents of 41,010 refused to get the children get polio vaccine drops while 30,310 were not available at their residences.

Similarly, in District Central around 33,038 children could not have polio vaccine drops, of which parents of 18,796 refused to get their children have polio vaccine drops while the remaining 14,242 were not available at their abodes.

In District West, over 75,782 children were unable to get oral polio vaccine drops as parents of 41,989 refused to get their children vaccinated against polio while 33,793 were not available at their residences.

Fortunately, officials said, polio coverage was above 98 percent in 20 districts of the interior of Sindh, where the majority of the children were available at their residences during the drive while very few cases of refusals were witnessed by the polio workers during the drive.

CM orders action

Health department officials said the Sindh chief minister had ordered taking stern action against health department officials for their failure to meet the vaccination target in Karachi and their inability to vaccinate 245,000 children during the drive.

“Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed for stern action against officials for missing such a large number of children while he has also called for taking legal and punitive action against refusing parents,” the official added.

EOC Sindh’s stance

According to the Emergency Operation Cell (EOC) Sindh for Polio Eradication, an extended catch-up in Karachi is ongoing and this figure will be bought down further.

The district administrations, including the DCs and ADCs, are leading refusal conversion activities and gains are being made. Much of the resistance can be owed to negative propaganda as well as the Peshawar incident, an official of EOC Sindh said.