Limited stock: EPI balks at govt plea for procuring more vaccines

Provinces asked to arrange vaccines on their own; traces of poliovirus found in Hyderabad.

ISLAMABAD:

Due to the limited stock of polio vaccine, the federal Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) has refused to provide the government more vaccines for travellers.

Talking to The Express Tribune, a senior official working closely with EPI revealed that the organisation barely has enough vaccines for routine immunisation and it cannot afford to supply in excess for any other purpose at the federal level. Even the provinces have been asked to arrange these on their own.

The official said that due to the delay in the release of funds from the government, the federal EPI is struggling to procure vaccines. “We have already conveyed this to the concerned officials of Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (NHSRC) and asked it to procure the vaccine on its own.”

According to another official, who works closely with the polio programme, said, “Though the federal government has made it compulsory for all people travelling abroad to produce a valid polio vaccination certificate from June 1, this is difficult to implement because of the time constraints and the dearth of resources. We only have 15 days left until the June 1 deadline and concerned officials are not even sure where to procure polio vaccines from.”

The official said the federal government so far has not placed any order for more vaccines to any local or international pharmaceutical company or organisation.

“The NHSRC ministry is short of technical people due to which it is unable to come up with any concrete strategy to tackle the issue professionally,” he added.

Moreover, the ministry has not chalked out any plan to create mass awareness about where to take the polio drops and certificate before travelling, pointed out the official.

“People are confused and they really need to know how to go about these travel restrictions. The federal government is also short on funds to run an awareness campaign on the electronic media.”

Poliovirus found in Hyderabad sewage

Sewage samples collected from Hyderabad tested positive for the presence of poliovirus, according to a monthly report compiled by the Virology Laboratory at the National Institute of Health (NIH) on Friday.

According to an NIH laboratory official, the traces of poliovirus have been detected in Tulsidas Pumping Station, Hyderabad, after seven months, which is alarming and worrisome.

“After Karachi, now it’s in Hyderabad poliovirus has been detected in environmental samples. Its presence in any city causes a major threat to all of children of the area who have low immune systems or are not vaccinated.”

World Health Assembly

On the other hand, three people from Pakistan, including Minister of State for Health Saira Afzal Tarar, Health director general Dr Jehanzaib Aurakzai and Prime Minister’s Polio Cell focal person Ayesha Raza Farooq are going to attend the World Health Assembly, which is scheduled to be held in Geneva this year from May 19 to May 24.

“Unfortunately, none of them have enough technical knowledge of polio to clear Pakistan’s position in front of the international community,” said the polio programme official.

The Express Tribune tried to contact officials of the NHSRC Ministry but none of them were available for comment.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2014.