Fight against polio is far from over

Special vaccination points are set up all over the province to vaccinate every child on the move

DERA GHAZI KHAN: As soon as a white car with children inside comes into the vision, a polio transit point social mobiliser alerts the other members of his team deployed at the point. They signal the car to stop.

“My children have already been vaccinated few months back,” the father of children replied when a member of the Sehat Muhafiz team requested him to get his children vaccinated.

The social mobiliser deployed with the team quickly clarified: “Since the virus is circulating in Pakistan every child has to be vaccinated every time the vaccine is offered in the polio eradication campaigns.”

Punjab has been largely remained polio-free this year except one polio case from South Punjab district of Lodhran.

But in this age of rapid movement of people, the possibility of virus spreading to other parts of the country is very high.

To counter the risk, the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) of Punjab has set up special vaccination points all over the province to vaccinate every child on the move. As many as 14 such points are located at confluence of other provinces in Attock, Mianwali, Bhakkar, Rawalpindi, Rahim Yar Khan, Rajanpur and DG Khan. The points have been selected keeping in view migration of populations form areas where the polio virus may exist. Sehat Muhafiz teams have been deployed here for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Bowata is considered the gateway to Southern Punjab from Balochistan and the route is used by high risk mobile population such nomads and devotees travelling either to Sindh or KPK as well.

Thousands of vehicles cross the border into Balochistan from Bowata and an equal number enter Punjab to visit the spot and then cross deeper into the province to visit the shrine of Sufi Saint Sakhi Sarwar.

A team of Sehat Muhafiz polio team has been deployed in Bowata to check every vehicle and teams closely watch each vehicle in search of infants and other children under five years of age.



Their eyes lighten up with delight if they see children travelling in a car or a donkey cart.

“We can easily spot children in a car from a good distance,” says Umer Khan, a transit point social mobiliser who works in the day shift along with two other vaccinators.

“As soon as I see children, I alert my colleagues. We signal vehicles to stop with the help of BMP. We ask parents if their children were under five years of age and if they have got them vaccinated.

If the answer is in negative, we pull out our vaccine carrier and vaccinate the child immediately under the shade of an umbrella because the oral polio vaccine is light sensitive,” Khan says.

“If we are able to vaccinate even a single child who was not vaccinated previously, it makes our day. We believe that we have done our job. Because we have saved that child from possible paralysis for the rest of his life,” he said.

Punjab has vaccinated hundreds of thousands of children at such points at the border, train stations or in shrines thus reducing the risks of permanently disability among them.



Up north towards the DG Khan city in Sakhi Sarwar union council a polio team consisting of two female members has been deployed at the shrine of Sufi Saint Sakhi Sarwar in order to vaccinate every child who has possibly missed his OPV doze. The site is one of the 13 permanent facilities set up all over Punjab at shrines.

Families from all walks of life, hue and colour, locals and non-locals visit the shrine to pay homage to the saint along with their children, said Khursheed Begum, a member of polio team deployed at the shrine. Thousands of families from Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunhwa pay homage to the saint during the annual Urs celebrations. In 2017, over 16,500 children were vaccinated at the month-long Urs, 1,200 belonged to Sindh, 1,100 to Balochistan and over 1,000 to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2017.