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ISLAMABAD: Polio teams from Pakistan and Afghanistan gathered in Islamabad on Wednesday to discuss challenges and issues faced by both countries in eradicating the disease.
The meeting was organised after the recent outbreak in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and southeastern Afghanistan. The main objective of the meeting was to review status in the common polio reservoirs and to address outbreaks.
Chairing the meeting jointly, Prime Minister’s Polio Focal Person Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq and Afghanistan National Polio Focal Person Dr Hidayatullah Satenkzai agreed to improve coordination at the provincial, regional and district levels. The meeting decided to develop plans to improve quality of SIAs (supplementary immunisation activities) and strengthen vaccination of high-risk mobile population.
Dr Satenkzai insisted on screening mobile population for polio vaccination as over a million people cross the border officially. He emphasised polio eradication as a collective responsibility that precedes any political difference.
Ms Farooq stressed the need for improving the campaign quality, coverage of high-risk mobile population and surveillance.
“Children who have been missed and polio circulation in overlooked areas should be taken as a serious risk to our goal,” she said.
Ms Farooq discussed the expansion of community-based vaccination in Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta to cover almost 3.3 million children.
National Coordinator of Emergency Operation Centre Dr Rana Mohammad Safdar said the immunity gap in North and South Waziristan and Afghanistan allowed the virus to transmit over a wide geographical area from Hangu and D.I. Khan to southeast Afghanistan.
Dr Safdar also pointed out how polio victims in these areas do not receive proper dosage.
He said that full-time vaccinators would now cover 100 per cent of target population in Quetta and Khyber-Peshawar and 67 per cent in Karachi.
Published in Dawn September 22nd, 2016
