Independent assessment: Capital lags behind rest of country in vaccination

Report says the performance of CDA is ‘suboptimal’ compared

RAWALPINDI/ ISLAMABAD: The federal capital is still lagging behind the rest of the country in immunization coverage, especially in the core urban areas.

This was stated by an independent vaccination coverage assessment for September.

The assessment noted that 84,627 children were examined by surveyors in the target areas of which 98 per cent were found to have been vaccinated.

During the survey, the ink on the hands of vaccinated children was observed on 93 per cent of children while the mark had faded on five per cent of surveyed children but their parents claimed that they had been vaccinated.

A province-wise breakdown of the overall assessed coverage found that Gilgit-Baltistan — where one case was reported from the Diamer region last year was top with 99.2 per cent of coverage with finger marks clear on 91.3 per cent of children.

It was followed by the newly merged tribal districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa — erstwhile federally administered tribal areas (Fata) — with a coverage of 98.8 per cent and fingermark on 95.9 per cent of children.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) was next with coverage of 98.6 per cent and fingermark on 94.8 per cent of surveyed children.

It was followed by Punjab with 98.1 per cent and fingermarks on 95.6 per cent of surveyed children.

Sindh was next with coverage of 97.8 per cent and fingermarks on 93.3 per cent. It was followed by Balochistan with 97.4 per cent coverage of children and finger marks on 89.4 per cent of children.

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) was next with coverage of 97 per cent and fingermarks on 88.9 per cent of surveyed children.

Last was Islamabad with an average coverage of 95.3 per cent of children and fingermarks on 88.4 per cent.

Within Islamabad, the coverage percentages varied between areas falling within the control of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) — at 98.6 per cent and fingermarks on 92.2 per cent — and the areas of the city which were under the control of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) with coverage percentage hovering around 91.8 per cent with 85.3 per cent of children surveyed having fingermarks.

The report noted that while the campaign in September was one of the most successful, with a commendable performance in core reservoirs, the performance of CDA in immunisation was still suboptimal to the extent that it was significantly lower than in areas of the ICT.

It further said that only 0.2 per cent of assessed children had missed vaccination because of parental refusal across the country. Moreover, the catch-up campaign covered 90 per cent of the missed children while the refusal conversion was around 60 per cent.

In this regard, it said that the special focus on high-risk, mobile populations and enhanced supportive supervision of the frontline workers was the main reason for the success of the campaign.

So far this year, four cases of poliovirus have been reported across the country. Of these, three were reported from Dukki in Balochistan while one was reported from Charsadda in K-P but the case was curious since the child had been vaccinated and was apparently resisting the virus, not displaying any of the crippling symptoms associated with the virus despite the fact that his blood had tested positive for it.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2018.