ISLAMABAD: Though the health departments have been claiming that a major turnaround has been observed in the polio eradication efforts, they would have to satisfy the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) for Polio in the UK next week.

All the stakeholders have been making preparations for the meeting which will be chaired by the chairman of the IMB, Sir Liam Donaldson. During the meeting to be held on July 20 and 21, delegations from Afghanistan and Nigeria will also present their cases.

The IMB works on behalf of the international donor agencies and issues reports on the performance of the countries after every six months. In November 2012, the board recommended that travel restrictions should be imposed on Pakistan and the recommendations were implemented on May 5, 2014.

An official of the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) requesting anonymity said though the number of polio cases had reduced to 13 in the current year - compared to 54 and 306 in 2015 and 2014, respectively, - there were still some challenges.

“Currently, there are three polio reservoirs in Pakistan - Khyber Peshawar, Quetta block and Karachi. The performance of the campaigns has improved in Khyber Peshawar and Quetta block but the situation is not very good in Karachi,” he said.

“There is a need to pay more attention to northern Sindh and southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The polio transmission has been detected in northern Sindh and it needs more attention to eradicate the virus by the end of 2016,” he said.

Pakistan has pledged at different international platforms that polio would be eradicated from the country by the end of this year, he said.

“The situation in Afghanistan will deteriorate as there are more issues of security due to which polio campaigns have been affected. However, Nigeria will be in a better position because it eradicated the virus last year and has to wait for three years to get the certificate of being the polio-free nation,” he said.

The head of the National Emergency Operation Centre, Dr Rana Safdar, told Dawn: “Last time the IMB showed its concerns over Khyber Peshawar and declared it a major challenge. But during the last seven months, just one polio case was reported from the area and only one case from the Quetta block.”

He said environmental samples collected from sewage to check if they contained the poliovirus had been found negative. During the third-party assessment, the quality of polio campaigns was also found improved.

In reply to a question, Dr Safdar agreed that there were some issues in northern Sindh and southern KP but claimed that the poliovirus would be eradicated by the end of the year.

The delegation which will leave for the UK consists of Prime Minister’s Focal Person on Polio Ayesha Raza Farooq, Minister NHS Saira Afzal Tarar, Secretary NHS Ayub Sheikh, Dr Safdar, health secretaries of four provinces, secretary law and order Fata and a representative of GHQ.

Mr Ayub Sheikh also told Dawn that an improvement had been observed in terms of the polio eradication.

“We are on track and by the end of the year polio will be completely eradicated,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2016