THE recent case of a four-month-old baby in Chaman tehsil of district Killa Abdullah contracting polio because his father refused to allow polio drops to be given to him, illustrates the deterioration in the supervision and management of polio campaigns in Balochistan.

This case has exposed the poor quality of the campaign, inappropriate coverage of the refusals as well as the woeful state of routine immunisation in the province. Chaman tehsil is one of the core reservoirs of the virus and this newly reported strain of wild poliovirus portends more such cases from the area. Balochistan earlier had an outstanding record on this front but it now has to begin again from scratch.

I request the chief minister of Balochistan to look closely at the deteriorating state of polio campaigns in the province.

Dr S. Tabish
Quetta

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2017