Anti-polio campaign: Over 30,000 houses in Peshawar skipped in second phase
Health officials say lack of funds and manpower was the reason they were unable to reach these houses in Hayatabad.
PESHAWAR:
As one round of polio immunisation campaign ended in February, residents of the upscale neighbourhood of Hayatabad are still waiting for the second one to begin.
They expressed reservations over the delay in administration of polio drops to their children to protect them from the crippling virus. The campaign was abruptly halted due to lack of manpower, said officials at the district health office. The second phase of the campaign will resume from Wednesday, they added.
“The campaign was launched at the beginning of this month but teams administering polio drops never turned up,” said a resident of Hayatabad, while requesting anonymity.
He said that he called the local polio in-charge, who told him to take his daughter to the Hayatabad Medical Complex. Moreover, the campaign missed some of the houses in various phases in Hayatabad. There are around 30,000 houses in the area, which were missed by the polio teams.
He demanded that the polio campaign be immediately launched in Hayatabad given the number of the cases reported from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in the media .
When contacted, an official of the health department told The Express Tribune that the campaign was delayed because the World Health Organisation (WHO) had stopped payment due to the houses missed n the area. The official said that under the WHO rules, if there is a certain percentage of missing homes, they stop payment to the health department.
However, he said that now this issue has been resolved and campaign will be relaunched from Wednesday. Dr Fazl Rabi, the district in-charge of the campaign told The Express Tribune that the campaign got delayed due to lack of manpower, as polio teams are constituted by requisitioning staff from other departments. However, he said that campaign will be relaunched from Wednesday. When asked about the reason for the delay in payments, he said that previously there was some discrepancy. “If the polio campaign vaccination rate is 90 per cent in an area, funding is stopped,” he said.
When contacted, Expanded Programme of Immunisation’s provincial chief, Dr Janbaz Afridi told The Express Tribune that they carry out immunisation in stages and high-risk union councils are treated as their first priority and those with medium risk follow. He added that the first phase of the polio campaign typically ran from January 31 to February 2, while the second phase ran from February 4 to 7. The next campaign will be launched on March 12 across the province.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 15th, 2012.
As one round of polio immunisation campaign ended in February, residents of the upscale neighbourhood of Hayatabad are still waiting for the second one to begin.
They expressed reservations over the delay in administration of polio drops to their children to protect them from the crippling virus. The campaign was abruptly halted due to lack of manpower, said officials at the district health office. The second phase of the campaign will resume from Wednesday, they added.
“The campaign was launched at the beginning of this month but teams administering polio drops never turned up,” said a resident of Hayatabad, while requesting anonymity.
He said that he called the local polio in-charge, who told him to take his daughter to the Hayatabad Medical Complex. Moreover, the campaign missed some of the houses in various phases in Hayatabad. There are around 30,000 houses in the area, which were missed by the polio teams.
He demanded that the polio campaign be immediately launched in Hayatabad given the number of the cases reported from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in the media .
When contacted, an official of the health department told The Express Tribune that the campaign was delayed because the World Health Organisation (WHO) had stopped payment due to the houses missed n the area. The official said that under the WHO rules, if there is a certain percentage of missing homes, they stop payment to the health department.
However, he said that now this issue has been resolved and campaign will be relaunched from Wednesday. Dr Fazl Rabi, the district in-charge of the campaign told The Express Tribune that the campaign got delayed due to lack of manpower, as polio teams are constituted by requisitioning staff from other departments. However, he said that campaign will be relaunched from Wednesday. When asked about the reason for the delay in payments, he said that previously there was some discrepancy. “If the polio campaign vaccination rate is 90 per cent in an area, funding is stopped,” he said.
When contacted, Expanded Programme of Immunisation’s provincial chief, Dr Janbaz Afridi told The Express Tribune that they carry out immunisation in stages and high-risk union councils are treated as their first priority and those with medium risk follow. He added that the first phase of the polio campaign typically ran from January 31 to February 2, while the second phase ran from February 4 to 7. The next campaign will be launched on March 12 across the province.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 15th, 2012.