LAKKI MARWAT: Even some employees of health department were reluctant to administer anti-polio vaccine to their children, let alone common people, a meeting was told here on Wednesday.

The meeting of polio eradication committee, chaired by Deputy Commissioner Ihsanullah Khan, was told that the attitude of such employees was adversely affecting the efforts of health department and district administration to eliminate the crippling disease.

Other members of the committee including DSP Rafiullah Khan, DHO Dr Nek Nawaz, EPI coordinator Dr Hafeezullah, ASDEO Hamidullah, district Khateeb Maulana Abdul Wahab and district population officer Fareed Khan also attended the meeting.

The meeting was told that Dil Nawaz, a gardener at the district health office, was reluctant to administer anti-polio drops to his children. Similarly, head of Walai Shagai basic health unit was also reluctant to vaccinate his children against the crippling disease.

The deputy commissioner said on the occasion that two health officials -- Hashim and Farid Khan -- did not perform duty during the recent anti-polio drive.

“The local administration arrested several reluctant health staffers under 3MPO and got their children immunised but no disciplinary action was taken against them by the local health authorities,” he said.

Lakki DC seeks names of such staffers to issue arrest warrant against them

The EPI coordinator told the meeting that the previous anti-polio campaign failed to achieve its goals in Eesakkhel, Tajazai, Ahmadkhel and Paharkhel Thall union councils.

“The campaign carried out in the first week of February in these union councils failed owing to the poor performance of health employees,” he said. He added that 421 mobile, 47 fixed and 23 transit teams were constituted to immunise 161,754 children under the age of five during the upcoming campaign.

The meeting was told that 4,325 children below the age of five did not get oral vaccine during the previous anti-polio campaign.

Out of them 2,867 were missed owing to refusal by their parents while 1,458 children were not accessible.

However, 10,967 internally displaced children of North Waziristan Agency staying in the district were vaccinated during the drive.

The deputy commissioner directed district health officer to fix responsibility of the campaign’s failure and initiate disciplinary action against the officials concerned. He also directed the officials to forward the names of those employees, who were reluctant to vaccinate their children, to his office so that their arrest warrants could be issued.

“The fresh polio case in the low transmission season of poliovirus indicates that there is dire need to remove loopholes and improve the quality of anti-polio campaign,” the deputy commissioner said. He added that officials tasked to cover refusal cases were getting attractive salary package and other privileges but they failed to produce satisfactory results.

Mr Ihsan said that government officials, especially health staffers, would face stern action for showing negligence in anti-polio drives. He said that concerted efforts would be launched to reduce the number of refusal cases in the district.

RAIDS: The teams of wildlife department raided bird markets and bazaars in Bannu city on Wednesday and seized precious birds.

The special teams got information about the presence of precious birds in the markets and conducted raids. They seized several birds and imposed heavy fine on the keepers.

Published in Dawn February 12th , 2015

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