CHITRAL: No head of relevant departments, including the district health officer, attended the meeting of the district polio eradication committee (DPEC) held here on Tuesday with Lower Chitral deputy commissioner Hasan Abid in the chair.

The meeting had been convened to discuss the arrangements for the forthcoming national immunisation day (NID) starting from Sept 20.

EPI district coordinator Dr Farman Nizar said that social mobilisation was needed in the Arandu union council as people were reluctant to vaccinate their children. He said the area being in close proximity to the Kunar province of Afghanistan further aggravated the situation.

Dr Nizar said the composition of vaccination teams in the border area was yet another problem where government employees were not available in sufficient strength to be included in the teams.

Regarding the below 95 per cent coverage in Chitral-II, Ayun, Broze and Sheshi Koh union councils during the last campaign, Dr Nizar said it was because ink marks on the fingers of some children got deleted due to the poor quality of markers, and the monitoring teams excluded such children from the count of those vaccinated.

Deputy commissioner Hasan Abid took notice of the absence of the officers of government departments from the meeting, and regretted that such laxity could mar the polio-eradication efforts.

He said that every effort would be made to make the campaign a success.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2021