Praise for polio initiative comes with a caveat

IMB expresses satisfaction, shows concern over immunity gaps

ISLAMABAD:

While showing satisfaction over the recent progress made by Pakistan, the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) – a body that evaluates implementation of global polio eradication efforts – has expressed concern over the country’s polio programme which is still not able to rapidly close the serious immunity gaps.

The international watchdog, which is a part of the Global Polio Eradication effort, issued on Wednesday a report, which said an improvement has been witnessed in the Pakistan polio programme since the last IMB report.



“Access has improved substantially – with the number of children in inaccessible areas falling from over 0.5 million in 2013 to 35,000 this year.

“There have been fewer wild polio virus cases in the first half of this year compared to last – this is particularly noticeable in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) where cases are down by over 90%,” it said.

The report also appreciated idea of the Continuous Community Protected Volunteers, an innovation that, it said, is proving effective. However, it expressed concern over the one million children, who are continuously being missed during anti-polio drives in the country.

Ensuring immunity: Anti-polio drive begins tomorrow

It termed them a potential threat not only for Pakistan but for all other countries, “especially as 48% of these children are living in the highest risk districts and miss polio drops because the polio teams could not reach to them”.

The IMB suggested Pakistan to take few important steps which are need of the hour in order to eradicate the disease from the country.

It suggested Pakistan to improve its supplementary immunisation activities and monitoring of performance while vaccinating each child under the age of five. “And most of  all the main challenge for Pakistan’s programme  – that is much better coordinated and led than it was a year ago – is to stop the ‘conveyor belt’ of transmission in Peshawar and surrounding large geographical areas,” it said. Commenting on the report, the National Emergency Operation Cell for Polio Eradication in-charge Dr Rana Safdar said the report’s findings were based on Pakistan’s performance from 2014 to the mid of 2015.



“It is an honour for Pakistan to be appreciated at international level but at the same time it has been asked to overcome the shortcomings, which have become a real hurdle in eradicating the crippling disease globally,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12th, 2015.