Reservoir for virus: PM’s focal person on polio monitors campaign in twin cities

Officials blame ‘fake news’ for rising number of refusals last month

ISLAMABAD: With only one case reported in the country so far this year, a top polio official has said that national and subnational campaigns over the next few months can help finally push the virus out of the country.

This was stated by Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio eradication Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq on Tuesday as she paid a surprise visit to the suburbs of the capital on Tuesday to monitor the vaccination campaign.

The senator visited various localities in the city including Tarlai and temporary settlements of a nomad. She was accompanied by National Coordinator for Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) Dr Rana Safdar and other senior officers of the health ministry, ICT and CDA.



Noting that the polio drive in the capital was vital to keep the country free of this crippling ailment, she stated that a special task force had been constituted to specifically monitor the ongoing campaign in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. This task force, she said, will provide the prime minister with daily reports to ensure maximum coverage during this and all upcoming campaigns.

Though no case has been reported from the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi for over two years, the virus continues to be detected in the environmental samples collected from the drains of both cities.

This has raised concerns amongst officials and communities.

As a result, Farooq said that she would be personally monitoring the campaign in the city during every round. She also took notice of gaps in the provision of routine immunization services to children against nine deadly diseases and issued directions to ensure that every child is immunized without fail.

Talking to the parents and communities during her field visit, the senator urged all segments of the society, especially the parents to facilitate vaccinators.

“Our Sehat Muhafiz has brought us so close to polio eradication that we cannot afford to relax hence I and the leadership of EOC have come out to support our teams,” said Farooq.



The second last polio campaign of the current low transmission season commenced on Monday. A total of 37.71 million children under five-years-of-age will be vaccinated including 19.38 million in Punjab, 8.85 million in Sindh, 5.73 million in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 2.46 million in Balochistan, a million in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), 0.7 million in Azad Jammu Kashmir, 0.24 million in Gilgit-Baltistan  and 0.33 million children in Islamabad.

The three-day-long campaign will be followed by a one-day catch-up. A five-day campaign with a two-day catch up will be held in core reservoir areas.

During this campaign, Vitamin-A supplement will also be administered to around 35 million children aged between six months and five-years-of-age along with OPV aimed at boosting immunity against diseases including Measles.

The campaign is proceeding smoothly,” stated EOC Coordinator Dr Safdar. He added that the campaign had covered around 30 per cent of its target on the first day.

He explained that ‘fake news’ spread in a viral video circulating on social media which linked the death in Nawabshah to the death of children with vaccines had caused refusal cases to soar last month.

However, as the facts filtered in, the majority of the missed children were covered during a catch-up campaign.

He added that the quality of the campaign had improved, in large part due to better coordination and the deployment of special mobile teams in 20 sub-optimally performing union councils.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 11^th, 2018.