ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) and all the health departments have finally made arrangements to establish the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for the eradication of polio in the country.

But it seems that the centre is being established in the current week to satisfy the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB), which will meet in the United Kingdom on September 30.

However, Dr Rana Safdar, the national manager for the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), claimed that the government was more concerned about the eradication of the crippling disease than meeting the deadline of the IMB.

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

Independent Monitoring Board set to review Pakistan’s performance on Sept 30

An official of the ministry of health requesting not to be identified said on June 2, 2014, the IMB in its recommendations for Pakistan declared the prime minister’s polio cell a ‘shadow boxing entity’.

It recommended establishing a new entity named EOC before July 1, 2014. It was also recommended that the new entity should be monitored by both the president and the prime minister.

“Though the deadline for the establishment of the EOC expired over two months ago, suddenly work has been started on its establishment. A floor has been vacated in the EPI building at the National Institute of Health (NIH) for the centre.”

He said it had also been decided that the EOC would be established before September 30 as Pakistan has to defend its case at the meeting of the IMB, which may also recommend further restrictions on the country.

The concept of EOC was that all the stakeholders should sit under one roof at the federal and provincial levels and ensure timely decisions for the eradication of polio, he said.

“It also envisaged that data should be available at one place, should be analysed immediately and decisions taken without wasting time.”

When contacted, Dr Rana Safdar confirmed that it had been decided that the EOC would be established in the current week at the EPI building.

“A whole floor has been vacated for the EOC. All the stakeholders would be under one roof and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would provide the logistics,” he said.

There will be four sections of the EOC. The first one will be technical section which will provide overall guidelines. The second will be the high risk population section which will ensure access to 400 union councils, he said.

The communication and advocacy section will deal with propaganda against the use of vaccine and create awareness among the citizens that polio vaccine is not Haram.

The fourth one will be the routine immunisation section which will ensure 80 per cent immunisation in every district.

In reply to a question, Dr Safdar said the EOC would be established within the next few days and would be fully operational before the end of October.

The low transmission season will start from November so it will be ensured that poliovirus is targeted in the season, he added.

“For us, the eradication of polio is more important than the deadline of the IMB and we want to find solutions to our issues on our own,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd , 2014