Polio immunisation: Vaccinator accused of counterfeiting record to be probed

Health workers say 143 children of Dera Izzat given vaccine only in papers.

BAHAWALPUR/MULTAN:

Health Department is set to launch an inquiry against a polio vaccinator accused of counterfeiting record of vaccination campaigns in Dera Izzat village for two years.

District Officer (Health) Dr Saeed Asghar told The Express Tribune that appropriate disciplinary action would be taken against Muhammad Nawaz, in charge of vaccination drive in the area, and other officials in light of evidence gathered during the inquiry.

Nawaz is accused of not administering anti-polio vaccine to 143 children of Basti Masetaan.  On papers, these children have been administered anti-polio vaccines but the families say no Health Department officials have visited the area for two years.

A Health Department team consisting of Lady Health Workers (LHWs) Irum Ayub and Rehana Bibi and lady health supervisor (LHS) Samrana recently visited the village after complaints were received from residents about lack of vaccination in the area for two years. A report submitted by the team to the DO (health) stated that the matter had been reported to ‘senior staff’ but no action was taken against the vaccinator.

Talking to The Tribune, Nawaz rejected the allegations. He said he had not missed any household in his area during vaccination campaigns in two years. Several residents of Dera Izzat village said they had been trying to bring the matter to senior Health Deprtment officials’s notice for over a year. Zahoor Ahmed, Abdul Majeed, Nazeer Ahmed, Mohammad Hafeez and Mohammad Aslam said when their grievances were not addressed the residents decided to approach the DO (Health).

Arrangements finalised in Bahawalpur, DCO told:

As many as 504,293 children below the age of five will be administered anti-polio vaccines in a four-day campaign that will start here on March 12.

District Coordination Officer Dr Naeem Rauf chaired a meeting on Friday to finalise arrangements for the campaign.

He was informed that 1,201 teams had been formed to carry out the campaign in the district. The DCO directed officials to ensure that the children in Basti Masetaan reportedly not given vaccines during campaign in two years were immunised during the current campaign.

‘Polio traces in two solid waste samples in Multan’

Traces of polio virus were found in two of the solid waste samples collected from various areas in Multan, District Coordination Officer Mudassir Riaz Malik told a meeting held to finalise arrangements for the campaign.

He said this was an improvement from the last year when traces were found in the samples.

The DCO directed the Health Department officials to ensure that no child was left behind. He said situation was improving in most countries where the disease had yet to be eradicated. Pakistan could soon be the only country with the incidence of polio if efforts were not scaled up to eradicate it, he added.

EDO (Health) Dr Mukhtar Hussain Shah told the meeting that 1,751 teams will participate in the three-day campaign. He said 650,000 children will be given anti-polio vaccines.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2012.