Anti-polio drive concludes in Pindi
The health authorities in the garrison town claimed to have successfully completed the polio vaccination drive in the district.
Announcing conclusion of the five-day campaign to administer oral polio vaccine to children below five years of age, Rawalpindi District Health Authority :Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Sohail Chaudary said the drive which started in the district on September 21 has concluded successfully.
According to Chaudhry, over 875,000 children below five years of age, were administered anti-polio drops during the campaign launched in all tehsils and towns of the district.
At least 3,000 mobile health teams, 496 area in-charges 287 fixed points,119 transit points and 221 union council medical officers participated in the drive to complete the task of immunization, Chaudhry told the media.
Meanwhile, over 1,100 cases of parents turning away health workers emerged during the anti-polio drive. The authorities took the help of clerics and social activists to convince these parents to vaccinate their children
In some cases, the district administration deployed Pashtun lady health workers to access Pashtun and Afghan neighbourhoods so as to break the language and cultural barrier and better spread the message of the importance of polio vaccination.
Among the 1,100 refusal cases, 396 people agreed to get their children inoculated against the crippling disease, while at least 733 were either not at home or their parents did not agree to OPV.
The In-charge Anti-polio Drive Chaudary Muhammad Hussain has said that the missed children would be covered during forthcoming week.
He said that special teams have also been formed to cover areas from where complaints about unattended or refusal cases were registered and anti-polio drops would be administered to children after convincing parents with the help of local elders.
Polio-free Punjab
The provincial government has formed a plan to eradicate poliovirus by the end of next year for which it will run an immunisation drive every month.
The government plans to make the province polio-virus free by December 31, 2021. For this purpose, the officials said that the anti-polio campaign would be run every month in the province.
They added that the samples of sewerage water would be collected from hotspot areas for the detection of the virus.
Further, the sanitary patrol workers have been directed to provide complete details of families that refused to administer polio drops to their children. After compilation of data, the teams under the Assistant Commissioners (ACs) would visit such households and try to persuade the parents with the help of local representatives, religious leaders, doctors, and others.
However, the government has decided to conduct punitive action against the families which will continue to refuse administration of drops to their children.
For the eradication project, the government has hired the services of the army too.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 26th, 2020.