Immunisation: As easy as giving candy to a baby

ISLAMABAD:

All it took was some creativity from young and inexperienced vaccinators and the universal lure of chocolate to do what conventional health strategies have failed to achieve.

During the three-day anti-polio drive in the capital which started on November 25, the most interesting case surfaced yesterday when children in the high-risk katchi abadi in Sector I-11 forced their parents to make them get anti-polio drops after learning they would get chocolate bars with the drops.

As news of the immunisation ‘reward’ spread, the lines kept getting longer and longer.

Talking to The Express Tribune, an official working with an international humanitarian organisation requesting anonymity, said, “We are surprised to see children who remained inaccessible for the last few years come out themselves to get the drops. Even the parents seemed helpless in front of the hard-to-refuse attraction.”

The official said according to the Prime Minister’s Polio Cell, during the anti-polio drive in September this year, 65,400 children across the country were missed only due to parental refusal.

Seven transit polio points have been established at the entry and exit points of the capital to halt the spread of the crippling virus. According to the vaccinators’ data, an estimated 1,000 children were covered on the second day of the drive. Many of the children vaccinated on the roads of Islamabad during the drive were missed during the previous drive, said a health official.

At various points in the city, students of Bahria University who had volunteered to take part in the drive were seen administering the vaccine on major roads and streets.

Malik Mubashir, a university student and vaccinator, said “It is indeed a great experience and I am happy that we are investing our energies for a good cause to save hundreds of children.”

They said there were still some parents all over the city who refused to get their children vaccinated, adding that the majority of them seemed to be of Afghan and Pakhtun origin.

It is worth mentioning that international donor agencies have hired top communication firms to carry out extensive anti-polio public awareness campaigns, whereas health workers administering drops in the field are paid a mere Rs250 per day. This amount was refused by students of Bahria University, who said they just wanted to do their bit as city residents.

“The hard work put in by these university students signifies the need for engagement of sectors beyond health in complete eradication of polio at the national level,” said Elias Durry, chief of the World Health Organisation’s polio eradication programme in Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2013.