War on polio: Avoid getting into trouble with the govt, vaccinate your child

Health minister claims they will eradicate polio from Sindh in two months

KARACHI:

The Sindh government will take action against parents who refuse to get their child vaccinated by polio teams during drives and campaigns in the province, said Sindh Health Minister Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar.

While talking to the media from his office on Thursday, Dahar appealed to families in the 11 high-risk areas of the city to cooperate with the teams and make sure their children get vaccinated. He added that the provincial government planned to deal with the polio problem as if it was at war with the virus.

Risky business

Despite the fact that polio workers have been targeted in different parts of Karachi, Dahar claimed that the Sindh government will eradicate polio within two months.

“Most of this year’s polio cases in Sindh have been reported from 11 union councils (UCs) where a majority of the residents are Pakhtun,” he said. “Families who belong to other provinces and don’t cooperate with polio teams will be sent back to their provinces.”

The high-risk areas of the city include UC 4, 5 and 8 of Gadap Town, UC 2 of Baldia Town, Orangi Town’s UC 7, SITE’s UC 9, UC 1 and 2 of Landhi, Bin Qasim Town’s UC 2, UC 3 in Korangi and UC 3 in Liaquatabad. According to official figures, there are around 243,307 children in these high-risk areas.

The CM rises

On November 1, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah set up a three-member committee before his scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on November 5 in Islamabad regarding polio eradication. The three-member committee for Karachi is being led by commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui while Sindh health secretary Iqbal Hussain Durrani and AIG Ghulam Qadir Thebo are also a part of the committee.

According to Siddiqui, their task is to ensure that all the children in the city’s high-risk area receive the standard two polio drops. “There will be a zero tolerance policy,” he said. “No one will be able to play the blame game now.”

Vaccinate me

A three-day polio campaign is scheduled to start in the city next week and will focus on more than 818,973 children. The commissioner told The Express Tribune that a separate polio drive will be carried out in the city’s high-risk area from November 15.

A total of 700 policemen will be on duty and according to AIG Thebo, an SP will be given the task to handle the situation. “It is a national issue,” he said. “We will provide security to the polio teams not just in the sensitive areas but wherever it is required.”

The money factor

The Sindh government has increased the polio workers’ daily stipend from Rs250 to Rs500. “Anyone working in a highly-sensitive area will be paid an additional Rs250,” said Shahnaz Wazir Ali, the coordinator for the provincial polio campaign.

Ali said that tribal elders and religious figures in these areas had ensured their cooperation with the health department. She added that they suspected the virus was circulating in some areas due to constant migration.

“Polio became an issue in the tribal areas when polio teams were not allowed to administrate drops,” she said. “We can control it with coordinated efforts. The next four to five months will be very crucial for all of us.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2014.