Renewed resolve: Sindh to be polio-free by end of year, says Azra Fazal

SUKKUR: Azra Fazal Pechuho, the chairperson of Sindh Health Monitoring Cell, vowed on Friday to make Sindh free of polio by the end of 2017.

Chairing a meeting of the divisional task force at the deputy commissioner’s office on Friday, she warned health officials, saying that no laxity will be allowed regarding the polio campaign. She added that action will be taken against negligent officials.

Pechuho directed the health officials to prepare a list of the ‘zero dose’ children - those who will be receiving the anti-polio vaccine for the first time - throughout Sukkur division and give special attention to the high-risk population areas. She said that no child should be missed any more in the campaign.

She further directed the health officials to seek the help of private doctors, community elders and religious scholars for the supervision of the polio campaign so that they can indicate the children left behind in the campaign. From now on, she said, private doctors will pinpoint such children of their respective areas, who have not been administered a single dose of anti-polio vaccine so far. Earlier, the coordinator of divisional task force, Yousuf Shaikh, briefed the meeting about the three rounds of polio campaign from November, 2016, till January, 2017. He said that due to poor performance, three vaccinators have been suspended in Ghotki district while two vaccinators in Sukkur have been issued show-cause notices. He added that after Khairpur district, the work of routine immunisation has been handed over to the People’s Primary Healthcare Initiative (PPHI).

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2017.