ISLAMABAD: Fears that lack of funds will soon halt the anti-polio campaign in the country have become real as the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) has received first complaints that anti-polio centres in Karachi and Hyderabad are being closed for non-availability of vaccine.
Health Officer Dr Shoukat Ali of Unicef Sindh has formally informed his superiors that the District and Tehsil Health Management Teams are closing the Permanent Transit Points (PTPs) for Polio in Hyderabad and Karachi.
Also read: Shortage of funds may hamper campaign against polio
An e-mail from the officer requests the convening of a coordination meeting to discuss consequences for the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) and the Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) in Sindh.
Teams at the PTPs, established last year, work 24 hours a day to administer polio vaccine to every child who enters a city or the province.
A Unicef official, not authorised to speak on record, said the disturbing situation arose because timely procurement could not be ensured.
“Buffer stocks kept for such situations have all been consumed. There is no option but to close the PTPs,” he said.
His worry was that “the problem will increase and closing the PTPs can be a disaster because many Internally Displaced Persons travel to Karachi”.
In Islamabad, however, an official of Ministry of National Health Services claimed to have “information that polio vaccine will be provided at PTPs within three days”.
“After the emergent issue is resolved, the polio campaign will pick up in Karachi but it seems to be a difficult proposition in the interior of Sindh,” he said.
National EPI Manager Dr Rana Safdar said that demand of polio vaccine has been rapidly increasing over the last few years.
“At the moment 300 million doses of vaccine are required every year. Availability of vaccine in the international market is also an issue,” he told Dawn.
“Although the government has the vaccine it is to be supplied to the provinces on request. Their requests are analysed to ensure their demand is not beyond their requirement.”
Dr Safdar said requests for polio vaccine for the PTPs received last week were dispatched to Karachi on Friday, assuring the PTPs will start working again within three days.
Questioned about the non-availability of polio vaccine at the Chaman border, he said the situation arose because Balochistan had made no requests for the vaccine. But after learning about the scarcity from the media the vaccine was rushed there.
“However we are waiting for the approval of PC-I by the government to get loan from Islamic Development Bank for polio campaign. If its approval is delayed, availability of the vaccine and operational cost will become burning issues in October,” he said.
Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2014
