Under attack: Polio drive suffers another blow

Police refuse to provide security cover to health workers in the wake of attack, say officials

KARACHI:

The fight against the polio virus suffered another blow on Monday as a police official, deployed on security duty with a vaccination team, was shot and injured in Orangi Town on Monday.

The incident caused panic among the already perturbed members of the vaccination teams, who have frequently been targeted in the city over the last couple of years.

The law enforcers, too, refused to cooperate with the health workers after the attack, said an official of the health department. Subsequently, the campaign, that had already been restricted to a few areas, fizzled out without achieving most of its target.

According to officials of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), Sindh, the national immunisation days (NIDs) scheduled to be held simultaneously across the city from Monday, had to be partially cancelled due to the unavailability of security cover for the polio teams. Under the rescheduled arrangement, the first part of the three-phase campaign marked its beginning on Monday in the union councils (UCs) of districts Malir, East and West, with the polio teams provided little security cover. The drive was conducted by 1,777 mobile health teams, which were escorted by 1,756 police personnel.



Of the eight UCs in Malir district, for example, the plan was to conduct the campaign in four UCs in the first phase. Unfortunately, the polio workers were restricted to two UCs only. "The police officials refused to cooperate with us after the attack in Banaras," said a health official. He added that the polio teams could not visit UC Jaffar Tayyar and UC Razi Brohi as the law enforcers were not willing to escort them. The drive in Banaras UC-6 was also cancelled in the wake of the attack. "The polio workers are not ready to put their lives in jeopardy. It will be difficult for the government to achieve the target if security is not provided."

Target unclear

It was not clear whether the police official himself was the target or the assailants had launched an attack on the polio campaign. Officials of the health department were of the belief that the personnel may himself have been the intended target as a series of attacks had been carried out against the police in the recent days.  On the other hand, they said that the polio team could have been the intended target as they have been threatened and targeted in the past.

"We cannot say for sure if our team was the target," said the deputy project director of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation for Sindh chapter, Dr Durre Naz Jamal. "There was fear among the workers for a while but the situation normalised soon."

Health department officials confirmed that security will be beefed up in the area where the policeman was attacked. They also said that it will not affect the campaign. "We will continue our campaign in Banaras and other parts of Orangi Town," assured Dr Jamal.

Sources said that polio workers in Orangi Town have demanded proper security arrangements after the recent attack.

Health officials have demanded that the government make proper arrangements to avoid such incidents in the next phase of the campaign, which will commence in districts Central, South and Korangi from January 23. In this phase, children under the age of five years will be administered the vaccine orally.

Moreover, a special campaign will also be conducted in the 11 high-risk UCs of Karachi from January 24. Similar three-day campaigns will be conducted fortnightly in the high-risk areas until May. The children in these areas are being injected the vaccine due to the 'peculiar health situation' in the area, said the officials.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2015.