Targeted campaign: Polio vaccination drive kicks off in Sindh

EOC official says focus on increasing immunisation coverage in high-risk areas

KARACHI: An anti-polio drive began in Karachi and 12 other districts of the province on Monday.

The 'sub-national polio supplementary immunisation drive' will continue till July 30 and aims to administer polio drops 3,363,539 children under the age of five.

In Karachi, 3,000 health teams are participating in the drive, which mainly focused on community-based vaccination in various union councils (UC) of the city.

According to the coordinator of the Sindh Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), Fayaz Jatoi, "The first day has been a success throughout the province and we are hopeful that the targets set for the campaign will be achieved."

In Karachi, the campaign is set to target 864,718 children in eight UCs in Baldia, six in Landhi, five each in Gadap, Orangi and SITE, four in North Karachi and Gulshan-e-Iqbal, three in Keamari, Korangi and Bin Qasim, two in North Nazimabad and one each in Liaqatabad, Gulberg and Saddar.

In the rest of the province, mobile teams will visit various areas in Sukkur, Ghotki, Khairpur, Larkana, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Kashmore and Kamber. The campaign was also partially initiated in Dadu, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sanghar and Naushero Feroz. The total number of children to be targeted in interior Sindh is 2,498,821.

Jatoi added that the districts and UCs being targeted in the drive are the top priority in the government's efforts to eradicate polio virus from Pakistan. According to the EOC spokesperson, the campaign has been especially planned for areas which have remained under the influence of the crippling disease in the past.

However, in April, May and June this year, environmental samples for the virus have tested negative, he informed.

Sindh recorded four polio cases with two from the same UC of Shabiarabad in Shikarpur and one each in Karachi and Jacobabad so far this year.

Over 2,000 cops to secure health workers in Karachi

In view of previous terrorist attacks, the Karachi police have chalked out a strategy to provide security to health teams busy vaccinating children against polio.

More than 2,000 cops have been deputed to provide security to health workers in the metropolis. According to statistics shared by the police, 2,179 policemen on 140 vehicles and 190 motorcycles are guarding health workers in the limits of 37 police stations that fall within districts East, South and West.

According to a spokesperson of the Karachi police, in District East, the polio drive would continue in 14 police stations' limits where a total 1,008 policemen would provide security to 906 health teams with 58 vehicles and 62 'motorcycle squads'.

In District West, a total 937 policemen would provide security to 2,032 health teams with 72 vehicles and 119 motorcycle squads within the jurisdiction of 20 police stations while 234 policemen would provide security to 171 teams within three police stations' limits of District South with ten vehicles and nine motorcycle squads.

In the past, Karachi has witnessed several attacks on polio teams as well as the policemen guarding them. On April 20 this year, seven policemen guarding polio workers were killed in two attacks in Orangi Town by at least eight gunmen riding four motorcycles. So far, law enforcement agencies have failed to trace the group behind the attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2016.