President urges authorities to come up with new strategies to eliminate polio
Addressing a specially convened meeting at Bilawal House, the president stated that there was no reason for campaigns against polio to be interrupted in Sindh if innovative approaches are effectively implemented with optimum utilisation of resources and proper vigilance is ensured.
He emphasised that vaccinating Pakistan was a doable job and he found no reason why the disease could not be eliminated from the country.
The meeting was informed that a major reason why the drive against polio failed to attain its desired result was because most of the children who were missed belonged to the migrant population, a section overlooked during campaigns.
To solve this, the president advised concerned authorities and provincial governments to consider setting up booths in collaboration with non-government organisations at all transit points of the provinces.
Statistics shared in the meeting revealed that Sindh had reported a hike in the number of polio cases last year, 33 in 2011 compared to 27 in 2010. However, this year had returned encouraging numbers with only three type-one cases being reported in the current year so far. The cases were reported from Hyderabad, Larkana and Mirpur Khas districts. The drastic reduction in cases was explained by the 98 per cent provincial vaccination coverage, recorded by marking fingers.
All the districts and towns had 95 per cent vaccination coverage by finger marking with the exception of Orangi, Liaqatabad and Gulberg towns of Karachi.
The meeting was apprised that according to a market survey conducted in all districts and towns of Sindh, with overall finger marking coverage in the province standing at 95 per cent except in Shikarpur, Karachi and Tharparkar.
Karachi, which witnessed violence and intimidation against vaccinators, still managed to post 90 per cent vaccination coverage by finger marking. The areas which returned less than satisfactory results included Orangi, Liaqatabad, North Nazimabad, Bin Qasim, Kemari and SITE.
The president directed the provincial government and the concerned authorities to especially focus on addressing epidemiological challenges that included the presence of wild poliovirus in sewerage and the immunity gap and performance failures in some parts of the megalopolis.
Zardari stressed that special attention should be paid to high-risk population areas where vaccination activities have remained sub-optimal so far. Adding that awareness should be created in areas where the literacy rate was low. He advised the Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners of provinces to personally monitor the campaigns and ensure that all the issues in reaching out to maximum number of people were addressed.
Those present at the meeting included Federal Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Secretary General to the President, M Salman Faruqui, Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Special Assistant to Prime Minister and PM's Focal Person for Polio Eradication, Shahnaz Wazir Ali, provincial ministers, concerned government officials and representatives of international partners against the polio disease.
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