Polio: Implementation, not strategy, hindering eradication, says donors

Urges Pakistan to focus on plugging loopholes in eradication policies

ISLAMABAD:

As President Mamnoon Hussain appealed to the world to not impose new polio-related sanctions on Pakistan, leading donors have pointed out huge gaps in implementation of policies and lack of coordination between federal and provincial governments as obstacles to the global initiative.

The president made the appeal in a message aired by private news channels on Thursday as reports of a new polio case emerged from Balochistan. Pakistani passengers are already bound to present polio vaccination certificates when filing applications for visas to other countries.

The donors, who include Japan which has so far financed about one billion polio vaccine doses in the last 15 years, urged Pakistan to focus on plugging loopholes in eradication policies. The recommendations were given during a recent meeting on the issue of polio which was chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and attended by provincial chief ministers.

“Pakistan should better use its decentralisation system to eradicate polio,” said Aki Yoshino, Project Formulation Advisor, Health, of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). She said Pakistan has a good strategy and framework for polio eradication but the real problem was implementation.

“We need more accountability and we must ensure the quality of vaccines which are very sensitive to any change in temperature,” Yoshino said. Another JICA official said accountability was needed not just in terms of finance, but to monitor the implementation of polio eradication framework as well.

“From next month, a door to door polio administration campaign will begin and if we miss the coverage goals, the polio cases may surge in high virus transmission time in next summer,” said Yoshino.

Japan is going to offer $5.4 million grant for the procurement of 16.3 million polio vaccine doses. The grant agreement will be signed with UNICEF for procurement of vaccines on Monday. Since 1996, Japan has provided $149 million to procure 968 million doses of vaccines. Yet the country remains unable to control the spread of the disease.

Unicef charges about 9% in administration fees, but Japanese officials defended the decision to spend the money through the global agency. “UNICEF globally purchases vaccines in bulk that helps keep the prices low,” said Yoshino. She added that Unicef was also responsible for assuring the quality of vaccines.

“Unicef is responsible for the timely delivery of vaccines but it is the responsibility of the federal government to deliver the consignments to the provinces,” said Yoshino. She said the government has been undertaking emergency polio campaign every year but still the coverage remains less than the targeted areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th, 2014.