Eradicating polio: IMB seeks UN agency’s help on Pakistan

Urges the international body to press Islamabad into implementing its recommendations

ISLAMABAD:

A day after releasing its scathing review of Pakistan’s polio eradication efforts, the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) has asked the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) to press Islamabad into implementing all recommendations mentioned in its report.

In a letter to Unicef Executive Director Anthony Lake, IMB Chairperson Sir Liam Donaldson said Pakistan’s ‘moribund’ polio programme could not be allowed to carry on even a month longer.



“Nothing short of transformative action will do,” said the letter, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune. “We make a series of powerful recommendations to bring this about [in our report]. We hope that you [the Unicef chief] and your fellow leaders will demand that the Pakistani government acts.”

“Otherwise hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent every year solely to keep the poliovirus in Pakistan out of other countries,” the letter added.

In its report, released on Saturday, IMB described Pakistan polio eradication efforts up till now as a ‘disaster’ and advised the government to immediately hand over the task of wiping out the disease to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

When contacted, Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (NHSRC) Saira Afzal Tarar said that “since the IMB report was issued over the weekend, we have not been able to review its recommendations thoroughly.”

“In a day or two, we will call a high-level meeting for all officials working for polio eradication in the country. IMB’s recommendations will be reviewed in the meeting and we will decide which of those should be implemented,” she told The Express Tribune.

The state minister said that people working to eradicate polio from Pakistan better understood the ground realities in the country and would have a better idea on how to go about the task. Asked about IMB advice to hand over the task to NDMA, she said the authority was short of staff to begin with and lacked the capacity to carry out the initiative in an effective manner.

National manager of the Extended Programmed on Immunisation Dr Rana Safdar, meanwhile, said that one reason why IMB was advocating handing over the polio eradication job to NDMA could be because it sees the authority as very active in the country and able to expedite decisions.

“It is too early to comment on this recommendation as we have find out NDMA’s stance on this and how ready it is to take over the responsibility,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2014.