KARACHI: The latest detection of a polio case in an eight-month-old girl in Baldia Town has once again exposed the working of the government health agencies and their helping hands, including the national and international monitors.
The new polio victim, Kainat, daughter of Zafran, living in Mohammad Khan Goth of Ittehad Town in union council-2 of Baldia Town, took the total number of polio cases to nine reported in Karachi.
The baby, the second laboratory confirmed polio case within a week in Sindh, had the onset of the disease on Nov 10 with no history of undergoing routine or supplementary polio vaccination.
The newly appointed THO of Baldia Town, Syed Kamaluddin, told Dawn that the latest polio case, details of which were released just on Thursday morning, was not his responsibility as it was all due to the poor performance of his predecessors and others concerned.
“I may be asked only about the quality of campaigns held in December 2011 and onwards,” he said, adding that the latest report suggested that the overall coverage rate was 96 per cent in the December campaign.
However, he conceded that union council-2, which reported the latest case, had registered 92pc or 93pc coverage rate, which was not in line with the augmented national emergency action plan on polio that demanded a minimum coverage rate of 95pc.
Sharing the details of his team's finding about little Kainat of Mohammad Khan Goth, Mr Kamaluddin said though the communication with the Pushto-speaking family was difficult, what the team could gather was that the baby had received a very negligible number of preventive vaccines.
According to official data, about 15 children up to the age of five years affected by the poliovirus had missed all the routine polio immunisation vaccines that should have been administered to them during the first 15 to 18 months of their lives.
With 32 polio cases, Sindh has the third highest number of polio cases. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the federally administered tribal areas top the list with 73 known polio cases this year, followed by Balochistan with 69 cases.
In Karachi, Gadap, Baldia and SITE towns reported two polio cases each in 2011 while Orangi, Saddar and Gulshan-i-Iqbal towns reported one case each.
Over 61 union councils of Karachi have already been declared high-risk communities in regard to poliovirus transmission.
Baldia Town, which reported its second polio case of the year on Thursday, has been witnessing ups and downs in polio immunisation coverage during 2011.
Having 115,241 children up to the age of five years deserving supplementary polio drops, the town covered 94 per cent of children in October, 98pc in September, 99pc in July, 89pc in June, 92pc in May, 79pc in April, 90pc in March and 99pc in February.
The first victim of the dreaded and crippling poliovirus in 2011 was a 15-month-old boy living in UC-1 of the town with a history of zero supplementary vaccination and one routine vaccination against poliovirus.
Sources in the KMC health department said that Baldia, SITE and Saddar towns had to suffer a lot due to the suspension of their respective town health officers and appointment of acting officials-in-charge.
The juniors tasked to perform as acting THOs found it hard to command the staff, including their seniors, as subordinates for a considerable period, said a source.
According to the sources, negligence and carelessness of the health bureaucracy, late payment of salaries to the lady health workers, corruption and mismanagement are some of the causes behind the poor immunisation despite a huge fund consumed by anti-polio two-drop campaigns involving NGOs, volunteers, international donors and health watchdogs.
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