A step back: Polio drive suspended due to unavailability of vaccines

Vaccine supply from Islamabad has been delayed.

KARACHI:

The government has suspended the anti-polio campaign, scheduled to start from September 1, due to the unavailability of vaccines and shortage of funds for operational costs.

Officials of the health department said that the drive was suspended due to logistic problems as a result of the sit-ins being staged  in Islamabad. “We were supposed to receive the vaccines from Islamabad but they have still not arrived,” said Mazhar Khamisani, who heads the Extended Programme for Immunisation in Sindh.

According to Khamisani, their target was to immunise 4.5 million children in high-risk areas of Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Sukkur where samples taken by the EPI had revealed the presence of the poliovirus. “We had written again to the federal government to send us the vaccines for Karachi only, so that we can administer the vaccines to the two million children in high-risk areas, but this arrangement also could not be made,” he said, adding that the new schedule for the drive will be announced after a few days.

Shortage of funds is another major reason for the government’s decision to suspend the drive. Khamisani, however, refuted the reports and said that the political situation in Islamabad was the sole reason for the delay. “We have also informed the police and law enforcement agencies that the campaign has been suspended for an indefinite time,” he said.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, health secretary Iqbal Durrani said that they will consult higher authorities and donors on how to deal with this kind of situation in the future. “We cannot put the lives of children at risk given the everyday protests and ‘dharnas’. We will seek a viable solution,” he said.

The majority of the 11 polio cases reported in Karachi were detected from Pakhtoon-dominated areas. Officials fear that even more cases will surface as a result of the migration of the internally displaced persons from North Waziristan.

“The IDPs arriving to different areas of Sindh must be closely monitored and screened for the poliovirus,” warned an additional secretary of the health department. “Unless these steps are taken, Sindh’s children are at risk.” The official added that the federal government invariably dispatched the vaccines late which had forced them to postpone the drive a few times.

Efficacy of vaccines

There have been cases where children who had been administered the polio virus contracted the disease, leading to fears that the vaccines were ineffective.

Health experts claimed, however, that the vaccines do not give 100 per cent protection against the virus.

They are, however, the best preventative measure at the moment. The vaccines must be given in more doses than one to ensure that the person develops immunity to the disease.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2014.