Vaccination campaign likely to miss target

The polio vaccination campaign from Sept 27 to Sept 29 might not attain its objective of vaccinating 11.5 m children.

LAHORE: The polio vaccination campaign from Sept 27 to Sept 29 might not attain its objective of vaccinating 11.5 million children as many of the targeted children are at school when the vaccination teams visit their homes, vaccination staff has pointed out. The health officials normally responsible for monitoring such campaigns are in currently flood hit areas so that the monitoring has fallen to their juniors who in some cases lack the experience and the expertise. Under the three-day campaign polio vaccine was administered to children in 25 districts of the Punjab.

A Health Department official told The Express Tribune as schools had started majority of children visited were not at home. However, Health Service Expanded Programme for Immunisation director, Dr Arshad Dar, said that the vaccination teams are also scheduled to visit schools to give polio drops to children.

Many private schools do not allow vaccinations teams to immunise children during school hours. “We do not allow any team to administer any type of vaccination to children in our school. If the child develops an allergic reaction then the parents will hold us responsible,” said the principal of a private school in Wapda Town adding that the parents should arrange vaccinations at home.

Parents complain that vaccination teams visit homes in the morning when their children are absent. They say that they have requested the teams to visit in the afternoon but none have returned. Sadia Zafar, a resident of Township area, said, “The teams came at around 11 am on Monday. I asked them to visit us in the evening when my children would be home but no one had visited us again till Wednesday evening.” Zafar said that all the children in her neighbourhood had missed the vaccination. “The Health Department should instruct its teams to make the rounds in the afternoon so that no child is left behind,” said another mother, Sundas Khan.

Dr Dar said that another three-day campaign would be launched on October 11. He said it was necessary to have these campaigns in the flood hit areas too as an epidemic could easily spread there. He said that the department has launched an epidemic control campaign in the nine flood-hit districts: Rahim Yar Khan, Sadiqabad, Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh, DG Khan, Layyah, Bhakkar, Mianwali and Khushab

Dr Dar as well as several of the senior officials of the Health Department responsible for the vaccination have been in flood hit areas for the past two months. “The absence of senior officers means that the junior doctors are running the polio campaign,” said a Health Department official.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2010.