Positive samples cause of concern, says minister

Directs EDOs to personally monitor immunisation drive

LAHORE: Although not a single polio case was reported in 2016 in Punjab, the positive results of environmental samples are still a cause of concern and require more dedicated efforts in the polio drive that is soon to start, said Punjab Minister for Primary and Secondary Health (PSH) Khawaja Imran Nazir.

He was speaking at the monthly meeting of health executive district officers (EDOs) on Sunday.

Imran directed the EDOs to personally monitor the polio drive this month. He stressed special efforts must be made to tighten the drug control regime with a firm action against culprits involved in spurious drugs activities.



Emergency Operation Centre Coordinator Dr Munir Ahmed said due to positive results of environmental samples, Multan would be specifically focused in the upcoming polio campaign. He gave presentation on the indicators that required immediate attention in the National Emergency Action Plan for Polio Eradication.

He added Punjab was able to address the rural and urban disparity in immunisation coverage, reducing it to just over 1%.

PSH Secretary Ali Jan Khan said preventive health care was under special focus and based on study of successful models in the world, new initiatives were being introduced in the beginning of 2017. He directed penalties and other disciplinary measures on staff members who are not complying with biometric attendance requirement. He asked for reports on sites where scanners were out of order.

The meeting also reviewed the status of basic health units (BHUs), facilities and resources needed for the improvement.

Punjab Health Services Director General Dr Mukhtar Hussain Syed, health EDOs from all districts, chief minister roadmap team and officials from Punjab Information Technology Board, Policy and Strategic Planning Unit, UNICEF and  WHO were also in attendance at the meeting.

The chief minister roadmap team also presented analysis on key performance indicators for primary and secondary health care. The vaccinators’ performance was under special scrutiny and it was decided the Punjab government will further fine tune its immunisation programme through child level data analysis.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2016.