Anti-polio campaign: Staff blamed for ‘leftover’ children

HYDERABAD: After a polio case surfaced in Thatta district in early October and polio campaigns ending with a considerable number of left out children, authorities are blaming the health staff for the situation. At an official meeting on Thursday, Hyderabad commissioner Qazi Shahid Pervez Memon expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of the health department, according to a hand-out. “If the polio teams don’t reach an area, its negligence of the [health] staff,” he said. “From the local bodies’ councillors to the district administrations, everyone cooperates with the health department but still they can’t meet their targets,” he lamented. The commissioner asked the deputy commissioners of nine districts of Hyderabad division as well as the district health officers to strictly monitor the performance of the health teams during the polio campaigns. The World Health Organisation’s representative and officials of the Sindh health department briefed the meeting about the upcoming three-day campaign starting from November 23.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2016.