Adverse conditions: Punjab teachers refuse polio vaccination duties

Demand health dept to take over primary responsibility.

ISLAMABAD:

The Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) said on Thursday that it will boycott the forthcoming anti-polio supplementary immunisation activities (SIAs), scheduled to be launched from July 1, urging health authorities to begin the campaign after Ramazan.

President PTU Rawalpindi chapter Sagheer Gujar said, “It will be difficult for teachers, especially women, to vaccinate children in this scorching heat,” adding that they are deputed from far-off areas without provision of transport and are also additionally burdened with work assigned to them from their respective schools.

He said it will become difficult for teachers to manage this entire workload during Ramazan.

Gujar further said that the Punjab health department has its own vaccinators which should be utilised for this purpose, and if short-staffed, they can ask teachers to fill in.



Meanwhile an official of the Prime Minister’s Polio Cell, requesting anonymity, said, “It’s impossible to postpone the anti-polio drive as it has already suffered gravely due to the recent devolution of the cell and security issues”.

The official further said the SIAs will be carried out in 76 high-risk districts of the country targeting 17.7 million children.

“The devolution of the PM’s cell caused a gap in immunisation activities and as a result around 1,548,000 children were reported missed in these areas,” said the official. At this stage, delaying anti-polio activities means putting the lives of over 17 million children at risk which Pakistan cannot afford at any cost, he added.

Anti-measles drive

Measles vaccinators in Rawalpindi have demanded the Punjab health department to start the anti-measles campaign along with the anti-polio campaign from July 1.

Talking to The Express Tribune, vaccinators said, “The anti-measles campaign is scheduled to start from July 8 to 18 this year. Therefore it will be very difficult for us to work from 8am to 5pm and go door-to-door to vaccinate children in this heat during Ramazan.”

Therefore they demanded that it begin as soon as possible so it can be finished before the month of fasting.

DHO Dr Khalid Randhawa was unavailable for comment. According to the Rawalpindi surveillance officer, Irfan, since January 2013, a total of 730 cases of measles have
been reported in Rawalpindi district with four confirmed deaths.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2013.