PESHAWAR: Efforts have been escalated prior to launch of countrywide anti-polio campaign as a series of meetings has started taking place with focus on Peshawar and Karachi to cope with the poliovirus reservoirs and pave way for eradication of the vaccine-preventable childhood ailment.

The nationwide three-day campaign against polio will be launched on November 9. “Prime Minister Imran Khan will chair a meeting of national task force on polio on November 9 wherein provincial governors, chief ministers and chief secretaries will take part. We are deeply concerned over circulation of poliovirus in Peshawar and Karachi,” Babar Bin Atta, the focal person to prime minister on polio eradication, told Dawn.

He said that the meeting of national task force took place on annual basis and that of provincial on quarterly basis. “A meeting with communication teams about polio will be held tomorrow,” he added.

Series of meetings being held to make the drive a success

Mr Atta said that the anti-polio campaign in 66 districts throughout the country was extremely significant in view of the prevalent situation and putting in place plans to control circulation of the virus, especially in core reservoirs of Peshawar and Karachi as those areas were transmitting the virus to other parts of the country.

Mr Atta said that the meetings of provincial task force of Balochistan had taken place on November 3 while the task forces of Karachi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would hold meetings on November 8.

“We want to make the upcoming campaign successful through quality vaccination to safeguard our children against poliomyelitis in the low transmission season that has been already started,” he said. He said that the low transmission season would continue till April. He added that during that season they would concentrate on immunisation of children particularly in the high-risk areas.

Mr Atta said that on November 7, they would discuss with governor the issue of merger of erstwhile Fata with KP to be able to run coordinated campaign. He added that currently KP and Fata ran separate campaigns, but they wanted to run one campaign under the provincial health department to achieve the desired results.

“Three polio cases have been recorded in tribal districts of Khyber and Bajaur. It is a cause of grave concern. The way out is to start vaccination efforts and give powers to district administration on pattern of KP,” he said.

Mr Atta said that anti-polio campaign in former Fata was presently run under the Fata secretariat. “In Fata, the system is not like KP where the district administration gives immense support to our vaccinators in the field. In Fata, the old administration system is still in place,” he added.

He said that on the directives of prime minister, they lined up hectic activities ahead of the campaign and meeting with all national polio team managers from all provinces was convened on November 6 to hammer out strategies and ensure that all the target population below five years got inoculated against poliomyelitis.

“Pakistan has recorded eight polio cases this year so far while Afghanistan’s tally is 19. The total 27 cases, recorded globally, belong to both the endemic countries,” he said.

The scheduled meetings will consider the current situation and will furnish proposals to strengthen immunisation against polio on the Afghanistan borders as well as devise plans to eradicate virus from sewerage water system in Peshawar and Karachi.

“The support of law-enforcement agencies is vital for successful campaign in the country for which we are in touch with the relevant departments. The performance of police, army and other law enforcers have been of significance to ensure the safety of field workers,” said Mr Atta.

He said that keeping in view the gravity of the situation, he would be staying in Peshawar during the campaign to chair evening meeting of the district polio control committee at the end of campaign on daily basis.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2018