Islamabad seeks 15-day reprieve for travellers

Time is needed to get polio vaccines worth Rs800m for 10m people travelling abroad annually: officials.

ISLAMABAD:

Expressing displeasure over the travel ban recommendation, Islamabad has requested the World Health Organisation to announce that Pakistani travellers should not be asked for polio vaccination certificates for the next 15 days.

On Monday, the WHO’s International Health Regulatory (IHR) Emergency Committee imposed a pre-travel condition on Pakistanis to curb the transmission of wild poliovirus across the globe. To deliberate on Pakistan’s reaction to the WHO decision, a high-level meeting was held in Islamabad on Wednesday.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (NHSRC) Saira Afzal Tarar said the WHO had been asked to give the government 15 days to devise a clear strategy on the matter.

After the emergency consultation meeting of the provinces over the travel advisory, the minister registered an indirect protest by saying, “Pakistan has been served injustice by WHO. The Pakistan government is making all-out efforts to gain access in security-compromised areas of Fata and lift a ban imposed by non-state actors in North and South Waziristan, but WHO has ignored this effort and the challenge Pakistan is facing.” WHO is not taking the Pakistan government on board while taking decisions, she added.



Despite the displeasure, she announced that the government has decided to share a proposal with WHO to assist the country in vaccine procurement and asked for at least two weeks in preparation time before implementing the travel restrictions.

All provincial and federal governments have agreed to issue uniform polio-vaccination certificates to all travellers once the vaccine is made available to the authorised facilities, Tarar added.

The 15 days – and presumably even more time – is needed to procure polio vaccines worth Rs800 million, which is the biggest challenge for the country as it now needs to vaccinate around 10 million people travelling abroad annually.

Talking to The Express Tribune, a senior official at the NHSRC Ministry said that on an average every year, 3.17 million doses will be required to vaccinate people against polio who will be travelling out of Pakistan.

“Currently, Pakistan has polio vaccines for national anti-polio drives not to vaccinate a huge number of people, and it is not possible to procure this huge amount of vaccines in 15 days.”

So far, the federal government has not yet written to any international organisation responsible for the procurement of polio vaccines, said the official.

WHO has nothing to do with the procurement of polio vaccines as United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) is responsible for this, he explained.

‘Recommendations, not restrictions’

Meanwhile, it seems like the government is not ready to accept the steps taken by WHO. During the press conference, Tarar made it clear to the media that WHO has given “travel recommendations” and not imposed “travel restrictions”.

Responding to a question regarding transparency in the issuance of polio-vaccination certificates, she said that only 19 grade or above government officers, medical superintendents and district health officers (DHOs) will be authorised to sign the certificates, which will be free of charge.

The minister urged the government to make polio vaccination a part of the dialogue with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). She said the government is reviewing its National Programme for Polio Eradication and it will be integrated with the routine immunisation.

In addition, the government is planning to constitute an advisory committee of ulema to clear misperceptions regarding polio vaccine among some segments of society.

Tasnim Aslam also irked

During the high-level meeting held before the press conference, foreign office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam also expressed her discontent with WHO’s IHR Emergency Committee placing travel restrictions on Pakistan, saying that the decision had been taken in haste and it should have considered the security challenge the country is facing in the tribal areas.

She also raised the issue of access to children in North Waziristan. The FO spokesperson said lifting the ban on polio vaccination should have been set as a pre-condition for the government’s peace initiative with the TTP.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2014.