Go extra mile to fight polio, officials told

Quetta commissioner says negligence will not be tolerated

QUETTA:

Quetta Division’s Commissioner Kambar Dashti has urged officials to put in more efforts in order to reach out to children in the province’s northern high risk areas during the next three-day anti-polio campaign scheduled to start from December 14.

Quetta Division’s commissioner – who looks after three high risk districts of Quetta, Killa Abdullah and Pishin – chaired on Tuesday a high level meeting to review previous campaigns and prepare for the upcoming one.

Killa Abdullah’s Deputy Commissioner Khuda-e-Dad, Unicef Team Lead Dr Jawahir Habib, WHO team lead Dr Ibrahim Yallahow, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Dr Masood Khan Jogezai, N-STOP officer Dr Aftab Kakar, assistant commissioners and other health department officials attended the moot. Balochistan’s Emergency Operation Centre’s (EOC) Coordinator Dr Syed Saif Ur Rehman gave a detailed presentation on the previous campaigns in Killa Abdullah – where a number of polio cases surfaced in recent past – and highlighted the gray areas.  He said an improvement had been witnessed in the past three campaigns.

“But more efforts are needed to sustain this performance in order to put a complete end to this virus,” he added. He informed the meeting about the formation of teams and lot quality assurance (LQA) samples collected from the area in the last campaign.



“A three-day anti-polio campaign will start on December 14 to vaccinate over 2.4 million children in 30 districts of Balochistan,” he said, adding that: “All the security arrangements have been concluded while meetings will be held ahead of the campaign to review the arrangements.”

Speaking on the occasion, Commissioner Dashti said it was time to eradicate the crippling disease in order to protect our children. “Though the performance during the last three anti-polio campaigns had improved, we need to do more so that every single child is vaccinated and protected,” he said. He said administration, health department, WHO, Unicef and other partners will increase their efforts during the next campaign. He said everyone involved in the campaign – from commissioner to a polio worker – would be held equally accountable if there was a flaw and negligence.

“We need to put in extra efforts and I myself will monitor the campaign and its arrangements,” he said, adding that negligence and poor performance would not be tolerated. The members vowed to improve the performance and personally monitor the campaign in each district and union council. Deputy Commissioner Killa Abdullah said there were some issues but hoped that these issues would be addressed.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd,  2015.