K-P crafts strategy to stamp out polio

K-P Chief Secretary highlights need to stamp out polio to save children from permanent disability

PESHAWAR:

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Imdadullah Bosal has underlined the need for stamping out polio virus from the last endemic region so that children are saved from permanent disability.

In order to achieve this goal, all stakeholders need to ramp up their efforts, he added.

He said this while chairing the maiden meeting of Provincial Task Force (PTF) for polio eradication here Wednesday at his office.

Secretary home & tribal affairs, secretary information, secretary health, representative of army and police, additional secretary health for polio eradication, Coordinator EOC K-P Asif Rahim, Deputy Coordinator EOC, Muhammad Zeeshan Khan, director general health services K-P, director EPI, Senior Consultant CDC, Dr Rana Safdar, National N Stop Brig (retired) Soomro, team leads UNICEF & WHO participated in the meeting. All the divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners joined the forum virtually.

The CS said that a lot of efforts, coordination and resources go into every round of anti-polio vaccination campaign, and it was important to ensure optimal use and benefits of all these efforts by ensuring a strict monitoring and accountability system in place at all levels.

He thanked all the partners and Provincial Emergency Operations Center for the sustained efforts and containing the spread of virus to other districts, saying that the provincial government will continue to support the polio eradication efforts till the finish line is reached.

Earlier, EOC Coordinator Asif Rahim briefed the forum in detail about the ongoing round of anti-polio campaign in the province, epidemiology and surveillance updates, updated status of environmental sites, performance of campaign in southern K-P, intensified extended outreach activities (EOAs), new interventions adopted by provincial EOC to get the desired results in terms of improved reporting from field and coverage of missed children.

He also oriented the forum about the new interventions including ring strategy introduced in the Mehsud belt of South Waziristan, new campaign modality three plus two according to the ground situation, extended outreach activities (EOAs), positive environmental sites, mop-ups, streamlining the reporting, presence and corrective actions by campaign monitors.

The forum discussed the challenges faced in reaching remote and high risk areas of the province and developed a plan to overcome these challenges.

It was also stressed to build better coordination and collaboration among different stakeholders involved in the polio eradication campaign and develop a plan to strengthen partnerships and communication among them.

In his concluding remarks, the chief secretary emphasized the importance of maintaining high vaccination coverage and continuing surveillance activities to ensure the sustained success of the polio eradication programme in the province.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2023.