PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department is starting a pilot project, separating polio workers from the staffers of the expanded programme on immunisation to strengthen routine immunisation and eradicate poliomyelitis, according to sources.

“The programme will be launched in Malakand, Buner and Haripur districts where the employees of the expanded programme on immunisation (EPI) will be detached from polio and they will fully focus on the routine immunisation for nine childhood ailments including polio,” they said.

They said that the step was taken by the health department on the plea that the EPI staff was preoccupied with polio vaccination and forgot their basic duty of immunisation of children for all children’s ailments.

Strengthening of routine immunisation, supplementary immunisation, surveillance and mop-up campaigns were basic components of the strategy that had eradicated poliovirus from most of the countries, sources said.

The Pakistan Pediatrics Association (PPA) recently said that immunisation rate was dangerously low in the province. It called for strengthening routine immunisation. The association’s concerns came after deaths from measles and complications developed by children not vaccinated against diphtheria, pneumonia and other ailments.

Programme to be launched in Malakand, Buner and Haripur to separate EPI staff from polio workers

Sources in the health department said that the EPI technicians, who were supposed to take care of all childhood diseases, focused on polio where they were paid about Rs4,000 per month for polio duty in addition to their salaries. However, they were not asked by the high-ups about dwindling routine immunisation like polio for which they provided all details.

A recent meeting, chaired by director-general health, didn’t give attention to outbreaks of measles and probe reports of deaths from hospitals but remained restricted to blaming polio, sources said.

Nevertheless, all EPI centres regularly received free vaccines but the staff indulged in polio vaccination for 15to 18 days every month and couldn’t find enough time to ensure routine immunisation of targeted children, they said.

Sources said that under the project, the EPI technicians in designated districts would be directed to take care only of routine immunisation and cover 70 to 90 per cent people. About 270 technicians in three districts would be tasked to collect data of children and get to every house, they said.

Sources said that the current immunisation rate was 50 to 60 per cent. The Continuous Community Protected Vaccination, started by health department in three districts, would be replicated in the new districts. The programme, launched in September 2015 to focus only on vaccination of polio by 1,200 female community workers (FCW), delivered as the vaccinators knew the addresses and immunisation status of children.

An official said that the province had 1,000 trained vaccinators, who, if deployed for routine immunisation, could apply brakes on the deaths caused by preventable ailments, but the staff was involved in polio vaccination and as result they faced outbreaks.

Sources said that donor agencies were unhappy with the government’s move to separate the polio from routine immunisation and had instead called for accountability of the staff but the department said that it wanted to improve general vaccination.

Minister for health and director-general health services didn’t receive calls made this reporter for the health department’s version.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2016