Polio vaccination to resume from July 20

It will be first immunisation drive since pandemic’s outbreak

KARACHI:

The Sindh Emergency Operation Centre for polio announced on Tuesday the resumption of polio vaccination activities in Karachi from July 20.

In a statement issued on the day, the EOC said that polio vaccination would be resumed with the launch of a small-scale campaign in the metropolis, covering approximately 260,000 children under the age of five in Baldia, Orangi Town, North Nazimabad, Liaquatabad, SITE Area and other areas. Later, the scope of the campaign will be widened, with multiple vaccination drives being conducted in different parts of Sindh until year end.

Speaking on the matter, the EOC spokesperson said, "These campaigns are of utmost importance as we must administer oral polio vaccine to children, to save them from the crippling disease and to ensure a healthy future for them."

He pointed out that Pakistan was one of the only two countries afflicted by polio and had so far reported 58 polio cases this year, of which 20 belonged to Sindh.

Filling the immunity gap

The vaccination drive set to begin on July 20 will be the first polio campaign launched in the country since the coronavirus outbreak.

According to the EOC spokesperson, the EOC faced a setback due to the pandemic when global polio campaigns were halted in March this year.

The spokesperson explained that "Sindh had back-to-back successful campaigns from December 2019 to March 2020 which had gone a long way to put the polio programme on track."

"However, since the outbreak of Covid-19, no campaigns could be conducted while routine immunisation was also severely affected, leaving an immunity gap which must immediately be addressed as children are more susceptible to the virus than before," he said.

"It is absolutely necessary now that these vaccines are provided to fill the immunity gap in children," he added. "While we deal with the pandemic, we must also deal with childhood immunisation to prevent childhood diseases," he stressed.

The EOC spokesperson maintained that the benefits of vaccination far outweighed the risk of coronavirus transmission, adding that the Sindh government was committed to providing these "life-saving [polio] vaccines" to children, so that the immunity gap, which had emerged due to the suspension of polio vaccination activities following the pandemic, could be decreased.

In order to make up for the gap in polio campaigns, the EOC Sindh has requested all parents to cooperate with polio teams, letting them administer polio drops to their children under the age of five.

The door-to-door campaigns would also be utilised to raise awareness about coronavirus prevention as well as for referring mothers and children for other essential vaccinations and antenatal care services.

Precautionary measures

Talking about safety measures during the campaign, the EOC spokerperson said, "We are taking all precautionary measures recommended by the World Health Organisation for the upcoming campaigns [and] parents have nothing to fear."

"Our workers have been provided sanitisers, masks, gloves and will not directly handle any child, not knock at doors and not interact closely with parents, spending minimum time at doorsteps," he assured.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2020.