Public health: 18m children to be vaccinated against polio

Govt hopeful of making Punjab a polio-free province

LAHORE:

A three-day polio immunisation campaign was launched across the province on Monday.

“As many as 42,000 mobile teams will immunise 18 million children under the age of five years from January 11 to 13,” Ikhlaq Ali Khan, a spokesman for the Health Department, told The Express Tribune.

“Our focus is now on strengthening surveillance,” he said. More than 3,000 teams have been deployed at city entrances and exits to administer polio drops to the travelling children. He said necessary arrangements were in place to administer drops at hospitals and health centres.



Teams of lady health workers, teachers, police and civil defence officials have been formed.

The Young Doctors’ Association Punjab chapter has criticised the anti-polio immunisation programme saying that the government could not fight the disease until it maintained the cold-chain process.

“Maintaining cold-chain process is important to achieve the desired goals,” YDA’s Aftab Ashraf said.

“Polio drops become useless due to lack of proper refrigeration at public hospitals,” he said. “This is one of the reasons behind the government failing to eradicate poliovirus,” Ashraf said.

“The government must maintain cold-chains and store vaccines in suitable temperature. This can help make the drive a success,” the YDA member said.

The Health Department spokesman said the government was aware of the importance of cold-chain process.

“We are hopeful of making the Punjab a polio-free province this year,” he said.

In 2016, a polio case had resurfaced at Chakwal. The first such case in the Punjab was detected three days ago when two-year-old Zargul, a resident of Rahim Yar Khan, had fallen victim to the virus.

Faisalabad

The anti-polio campaign was launched in Faisalabad on Monday amid stringent security measures. A spokesman for the Health Department told The Express Tribune that more than 1.2 million children would be administered polio drops in the district.

As many as 2,958 teams have been formed to cover 100 per cent areas, he said. He said the children missed during the campaign would be given drops on January 14 and 15. “These will be declared ‘sweeping days’ for the leftover children,” the spokesman said.

A spokesman for police said that 1,897 police officials had been tasked with providing security to polio teams. They include 234 assistant sub inspectors, 203 head constables and 1,460 constables, the spokesman said.

“Heads of police stations across the district have been directed to provide security to health workers. Special police squads have been alerted to deal with any untoward situation,” he said.

Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio remains endemic. Efforts to eradicate the disease have been marred in recent years by attacks on immunisation teams.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2016.