ISLAMABAD: Handing over control of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to the chief of the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) may benefit the polio vaccination programme, as it has been decided that permanent staff will be hired for future polio vaccination campaigns in the capital.

The decision was made during a meeting chaired by the prime minister’s focal person on polio, Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq, and Islamabad Mayor Sheikh Ansar Aziz.

This system is already in place in other parts of the country, but in Islamabad polio vaccination campaigns are conducted using part-time employees, such as students.

Until now, temporary workers have been hired to conduct polio vaccination campaigns in Islamabad

The programme has been criticised over the years, particularly because every time polio vaccination campaigns are held with new teams, workers cannot be held responsible in case of any complaints or faults because there are only hired for three to five days, and some do not participate in subsequent campaigns.

In addition, incidents such as one in Zone-I when people assaulted a student administering the vaccine to children because they believed the vaccine to be a conspiracy against children cause some part-time workers to stop participating in the vaccination campaigns because they are unwilling to endanger themselves for a few hundred rupees.

According to Senator Farooq, it was decided during the meeting that all health infrastructure should be made permanent.

“We suggested that the human resource deficiency might not be completely removed, but a permanent pool of polio workers can be established to ensure that the same people participate in every campaign,” she said.

She said at the moment, new polio workers have to be trained when they arrive. “Sometimes, workers are replaced at the last minute, which makes it impossible to train them and they go into the field without any training,” she added.

“By making the pool of polio workers include not only permanent workers but also temporary employees, it will become possible to ensure that permanent workers do not go on leave during polio vaccination campaigns,” she said.

“Islamabad is the most important, but sensitive, city to polio, because of the huge influx of people from various parts of the country,” she added. “Although the poliovirus is not present in the city, it can arrive at any time because of the frequent movement of people from Fata, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Rawalpindi and other areas.”

The head of the National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC) for Polio, Dr Rana Mohammad Safdar, said the goal is to eradicate the poliovirus by the end of 2016, which is why additional measures are being taken to improve performance.

“In Islamabad, constantly 90pc of children are vaccination in every campaign, but now the target has been increased to 95pc, due to which it is necessary to improve efforts,” he said.

“Luckily, the mayor has control of the CDA, because of which it is expected that coordination between the Islamabad Capital Territory administration and the CDA will improve and it will become possible to vaccinate over 95pc of children during every campaign,” he said.

Dr Safdar said the mayor was also informed that some private schools have not been cooperative during polio vaccination campaigns.

The mayor has also directed the CDA’s Human Resource Directorate to ensure that plans for the deployment of dedicated staff in the city for future polio vaccination campaigns are shared with him. He also made special mention of the Private Education Institutions Regulatory Authority, directing Piera to assist the government in convincing refusing schools during vaccination campaigns.

Mr Aziz said accountability for negligence towards duties and a lethargic attitude towards improve the current state of the polio vaccination programme would be ensured.

He told the meeting that in order to achieve the desired results of the upcoming vaccination drive, 600 polio teams have been constituted. This includes 453 mobile, 53 transit and 95 fixed teams which will vaccinate 140,835 children of up to five years of age in various parts of the city.

He also said Islamabad has been divided into 21 zones for effective monitoring. Each zone will be supervised by a zonal in-charge, and 107 area in-charges will be deputed to monitor the progress of the vaccination teams.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2016