A crippling disease: Injections to be used in next polio drive

Polio workers will inoculate 92,432 children with the inactivated polio vaccine.

KARACHI: Polio workers have refused to go ahead with the campaign in nine high-risk union-councils (UCs) of the city if they are not provided proper security, said health officials on Tuesday.

Security, for this polio drive, is important as it will be the first one where polio workers will administer the vaccination through an injection - not drops. In September last year, the provincial government had decided to make a tactical change in their approach towards immunisation. Instead of using the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) which is administered through drops, they were going to introduce the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) which is administered through an injection.



During a meeting held at the Karachi commissioner's office, it was also decided that the anti-polio drive will be postponed if security personnel were not deployed for polio workers. "We can't take a risk and put the polio workers' lives in danger," said commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui. "Security is very important in sensitive areas." He added that negligence will not be tolerated.

The four-day campaign which will start at the end of the week aims to target 92,432 children. At the meeting, it was also decided that health camps would be set up in the areas where the children will also receive routine immunisation.

A total of 40 medical camps will be set up for a total population of over 535,000 people. Health officials have assigned 307 vaccinators to work in high-risk areas. The meeting was attended by officials from the health department, the Sindh police, United Nations Children's Fund and the Extended Programme on Immunisation.

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