For a day: Polio campaign extended in Pindi

Officials say decision prompted by refusals, absent children and detection of virus in fresh samples

RAWALPINDI: As officials once again detected traces of the poliovirus in environmental samples collected from the garrison city, officials in charge of a vaccination campaign have decided to extend by a day an ongoing five-day drive.

High refusals from the city have also worried officials.

During the ongoing anti-polio vaccination campaign, the number of families refusing polio and vitamin drops to their children in Rawalpindi had increased by more than 500.

While the health department has claimed that 8.5 million people were vaccinated during the recent campaign, a third-party survey showed that the number of families turning away vaccinators has been rising.

These families, the survey said, reside in the Pandora, Satellite Town, Sadiqabad, and Cantonment areas.



Moreover, the survey said that the residents in these areas comprised of different ethnicities including Pashtuns, Kashmiris and Punjabis.

Acknowledging the refusals, Anti-Polio drive in charge Chaudhry Muhammad Hussain on Friday said that they were extending their five-day campaign.

Talking to APP, he said that campaign was extended to reach around 5,000 children who were missed or their parents refused to administer polio drops.

Now the anti-polio campaign would continue till April 14 as health department wanted to cover as many children it can, he said.

"I informed the Health Chief Executive Officer Dr Sohail Chaudhary about the refusal of parents or the children out of the city, so he directed to extend the campaign for one more day to achieve the target," Hussain said.

He admitted that the campaign in several areas of the city had been affected, particularly in the cantonments.



He urged parents to come forward and play their role in ensuring that their children are vaccinated against the disease.

The government plans another campaign early next month to ensure that the children missed in the catch-up

drive are covered. In this regard, the government has alerted lady health workers and supervisors to be prepared for the drive. A team from the Punjab Health Director General is also being dispatched to the garrison city to monitor the campaign.

Fresh detection

Health department officials said that they had found samples of the virus in some samples collected from the sewerage of the city.

Last year, the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi had been termed as a ‘hot spot’ by international polio watchdog, the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).

Isolates from Islamabad and Rawalpindi mean that there is transmission outside the core polio reservoirs, the report noted, adding that the transmission “ping-pong” between the twin cities and extends to adjoining areas. Despite efforts, it observed that the virus has stubbornly persisted among in Islamabad and neighbouring Rawalpindi.

The Pakistan Polio Programme leadership described the twin cities as, “Our Achilles heel for some time now”.

The GEPI report had also pointed to the limited effectiveness of health workers as a problem and prompted a decision to appoint around 300 additional vaccinators had been taken.

During the recent five-day polio campaign in the capital, Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio Senator Ayesha Farooq had decided to personally monitor the campaign. She even visited some localities of the capital and observed health workers work and spoke with families.

No case for polio has been reported in the twin cities for over two years now, however, it has consistently reported the presence of the poliovirus in its environmental samples.

Last year, only eight polio cases were reported across the country. This is down from a high of 306 reported five years ago in 2013.

This year, so far, only one case has been reported, from Balochistan.

WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM APP

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th, 2018.