Polio drive exceeds vaccination targets in Sindh

Health officials appeal to parents to cooperate with polio teams, immunise their children

KARACHI: The week-long polio vaccination campaign carried out last week was able to administer the vaccine to 101 per cent of children in Sindh - a figure that includes children visiting the province from other parts of the country and the world. However, around 3.3 per cent of children residing in Sindh were missed by the campaign despite the high coverage.

According to Emergency Operation Centre officials (EOC), the December campaign that targeted all children under the age of five years was completed on Tuesday.

Despite the satisfactory targets and the coverage statistics exceeding 100 per cent, the polio workers were unable to administer the vaccine to 3.3 per cent of Sindh’s children. This was partly due to refusals in some areas of the province and partly due to the fact that some children were travelling outside Sindh.

Pakistan's ex-polio focal person seeks apology from UK daily over polio cover-up allegations

Explaining the 101 per cent coverage, the EOC spokesperson said that the extra number includes children visiting the province from elsewhere. He explained that many people entered the province due to seasonal migration and their children had subsequently been vaccinated as well.

Targets achieved?

The drive had a target of vaccinating all nine million children in Sindh, including approximately 2.3 million in Karachi.

A total of 95.2 per cent of children, out of 2,229,687, were vaccinated in Karachi division. In Hyderabad, 102.1 per cent out of over 2.1 million children were given the vaccination.

The target for immunisation in Larkana division, meanwhile, was 1.5 million children, with coverage of 103.7 per cent. In Shaheed Benazirabad division, 101.8 per cent of children received the vaccination, with an initial target of about 1.1 million children.

Moreover, the number of children targeted for vaccination in Sukkur division was 1,229,424, while the coverage was 103.9 per cent. Lastly, 103 per cent of the 785,475 children registered in Mirpurkhas division were vaccinated,

A good start

“With a satisfactory campaign across the country and regular polio drives already planned until June, this was a good start to reverse the trend of polio cases in the province,” said the EOC official.

Misinformation to blame for polio challenge in K-P

Health officials appealed to parents to cooperate with polio teams in order to eradicate the crippling disease. They also urged the media to spread the message that polio vaccination is encouraged by religious scholars and medical associations, adding that the majority of nations across the world, including over 50 Muslim countries, had eradicated the virus through the same oral polio vaccine.

At least 17 polio cases have emerged in Sindh in the current year. The situation alarmed health officials after only one case was reported last year and two cases in 2017. The Sindh Chief Minister, in a meeting earlier this month, compared the scenario this year to that in 2014 and 2015, when 30 and 14 cases, respectively, were reported in the province. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 26^th, 2019.