Polio eradication: Focusing on IDPs and FATA, vaccination drive begins today

Campaign to target 32.66 million children across Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD:

The ministry of health has launched a three-day polio eradication campaign starting Monday (today), targeting 32.66 million children across Pakistan, with special arrangements made for inaccessible areas across the country, sources in the ministry say.

A total of 88,000 polio teams will be managed by over 12,000 supervisors during the campaign, with each team comprising a male and a female health worker, sources say, adding that in areas where women cannot participate, young boys will be recruited as volunteers.

The campaign is supported by the World Health Organization (WHO).

More than half the cases of polio reported last year came from Fata, especially the Khyber agency, a gateway for other agencies, said a ministry official.

“Most of the internally displaced people (IDPs) are either in Khyber agency or passing through it, increasing the risk of spreading the disease,” said the official.

According to sources, over 350,000 children are missed out every year in the campaign, most of them IDPs. However, at present, there are 13 cases in the country – 9 from Fata, 2 from Balochistan and 1 each from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh.

The new campaign will solicit assistance from the army and local authorities to provide access and protection to health workers, especially in the volatile areas.

As the incidence of polio rises, the government has engaged the highest officials to assist in eliminating the disease from the country. Director-general WHO Dr Margaret Chan met President Zardari, during her visit to Pakistan last October, and apprised him of Pakistan’s lagging behind in polio eradication. The president’s national emergency plan for polio envisions eradication of the disease by 2011. He also inaugurated the new eradication campaign, approved by the prime minister on January 14, which utilises the assistance of district coordination officers (DCOs) in steering the campaign.

Under the new plan, provincial chief secretaries will meet with DCOs once a month, to monitor the campaign.

Meanwhile, each chief minister will establish a monitoring cell in his office to monitor the administration. The monitoring cell for Fata will be established at the office of governor Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani also recently approved a summary regarding the establishment of a polio monitoring cell at the PM secretariat. The cell will be operational by next week, according to sources at the health ministry.

The cell will monitor all eradication campaign-related activities across the country and submit a one-page report to the PM fortnightly, requesting any necessary assistance if required.

In communities where families refuse to administer the vaccine to their children, the Unicef is assisting the local administration in advocating and convincing their population to get vaccinated.

A hotline service will also operate from March 7, for a week, for people to call toll-free on 0800-88588 from across Pakistan and report if a polio team does not arrive at their home. Once the complaint is registered, a team will be dispatched within an hour, ministry officials said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2011.