On a mission: Health officials adopt new strategy for polio drive

Drive aims to target 139 union councils across the city.


Our Correspondent March 27, 2014 1 min read
A lady health worker gives a child some sweets after administering polio vaccine. PHOTO: PPI

KARACHI: The strategy behind the ongoing polio drive in the city may appear random at first but it has been devised after a lot of planning - the teams will go to areas where they have a police team accompanying them.

This means that some days the health workers are in one part of town and other days they are covering an area on the opposite end of the city. The aim is to target as many children less than five years of age as possible.



Ever since the first case of the year was reported in the city on March 14, the health officials have sprung into action and want to get polio drops administered at all costs. The drive, which began on Tuesday and will last till Sunday, aims to target 139 union councils (UCs) in Karachi. Around 50 UCs in the city are considered ‘highly sensitive’ and ‘risky’ and, unfortunately, include the locations where 26 polio cases have been reported since 2009.

“There is no security threat in these [139] UCs but law enforcement agencies are still deployed with the teams,” informed health EDO Dr Zafar Ejaz. The officials only allow the health workers to step out when security is finalised.

Apart from this, the health officials are reluctant to share any details on the new strategy. Only those areas are being targeted where security has been provided, said an official in the department, adding that some areas that fall in ‘Category 2’ of sensitive areas will be targeted on Friday (today).

“The focus is on risky UCs, not the entire city,” said Sindh health secretary Iqbal Hussain Durrani. “These are not only risky areas but positive cases have also been reported from these areas,” he added. Durrani insisted that all security measures are being taken to ensure security.

The health workers, however, have another story to share. “There are no policemen with the teams in our area,” a polio worker informed The Express Tribune on Thursday, when she was administering polio drops in Lyari. “I saw one policeman who was deployed at the centre when I left early morning.” She did not know if Lyari was a sensitive area on the health department’s list but she said she had to work.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 28th, 2014.

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