KARACHI: Declaring that 16 polio cases in Karachi is already the city’s highest tally in the past one decade, the provincial authorities have established an emergency operation centre (EOC) as demanded by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to deal with the surge in polio cases across the country, including Sindh.

“We have notified the establishment of the centre in the building facing the premises of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) Sindh,” said Khalid Shaikh, special secretary in the provincial health department, while speaking at a press conference at the EPI office on Tuesday.

The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) for polio had recommended establishing a new entity named EOC for polio before July 1, 2014. It was recommended that a new entity should be dealt by both the president and the prime minister and its sub-entities be established in all the provincial capitals.

Mr Shaikh said Sindh was the first province to notify the EOC to be headed by an additional secretary of Chief Minister House along with representatives from the WHO, Rotary International and various other bodies trying to eradicate the crippling disease.He said nine cases in 2011 was the previous highest count in polio cases during the past one decade and this year’s tally of 16 had surpassed it.

Mr Shaikh said the nationwide anti-polio campaign, the so-called National Immunization Days (NIDs), would be extended from three days to a week in Karachi because of the security situation.

He said the campaign would end in Karachi’s west, central and south districts on Wednesday while it would start in the remaining three districts — Korangi, Malir and east — on Thursday for three days.

Another day (Sunday) would be reserved for the children who might have missed out during the routine campaign days.

He said that according to the police force sanctioned for more than 6,000 polio teams by the authorities, the health department could have not gone for full-scale inoculation in the entire city simultaneously.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2014