First nationwide polio drive termed a huge success

Some 0.1m children who had previously missed inoculation also vaccinated

ISLAMABAD: The National Emergency Operation Cell for Polio Eradication has termed the first nationwide anti-polio drive of the low transmission season a ‘success’.

This disease has crippled 32 children in Pakistan to date this year. Some 36 million children under the age of five years were targeted to be vaccinated against polio for which overall coverage remained 100 percent.

For the first time in six years, door to door anti-polio drive was carried out in Khyber Agency in this campaign. Similarly it was carried out after two years in South and North Waziristan, said National Emergency Operation Cell for Polio coordinator, Dr Rana Muhammad Safdar.

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Talking to The Express Tribune, he said, “It was a positive sign for Pakistan in its fight against polio. Secondly no unfortunate incident of terrorist activity was reported from any part of the country which also made this national anti-polio drive a success.”

Sharing details, he said Punjab has reported 105 percent coverage in the anti-polio drive that began on September 14. Sindh covered 99 percent of the targeted children, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 99 percent, Balochsitan 98 percent and Islamabad 101 percent. Gilgit-Baltistan ensured 103 percent and Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) ensured 94 percent coverage of the targeted children.

Furthermore, 100,000 children under the age of five were also administered polio drops who had been missed earlier in various parts of the country.

“With this the number of children who have missed polio drops countrywide has reduced to 300,000 from 400,000,” he said.

Most of these children were either not available at homes, were travelling or missed administration of polio drops for other reasons, said Safdar.

Just to counter check the validity of the coverage, a third party evaluation was carried out in three phases in the high-risk zone. The first stage of evaluation began at the start of the campaign, the second during it and the third after the drive came to an end, he said.

Meanwhile an independent evaluation is underway in other districts and the final result will be shared over the next two days, he said.

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“This year the major focus of the anti-polio drives is more on improving the quality rather than quantity,” said Safdar.

Now first Sub National Immunisation Day (SNIDs) of low transmission season for the high risk areas is scheduled to be carried out from mid October, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2015.