KARACHI: Reviewing the government performance vis-à-vis the recent anti-polio campaign, provincial Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho at a meeting gave directives for carrying out new mapping of katchi abadis and highways where Afghan refugees might come and reside.

She also instructed for better measures to ensure effective vaccination drives in Afghan settlements.

The meeting was attended by Emergency Operation Centre for Polio (EOC) coordinator Fayyaz Abbasi and all provincial deputy commissioners through video link.

During the meeting, the minister was informed that 98 per cent of the vaccination target was achieved and more than 7.1 million children were inoculated against the crippling disease in the current month.

The officials concerned briefed the minister about the environmental sampling (for polio) carried out in the province and said that its results in Hyderabad had come positive in April.

The minister cautioned officials on the vulnerable situation in Afghanistan that might lead to huge influx of Afghan refugees into Sindh and directed them to conduct new mapping of Afghan settlements and highways.

She called for parents’ counselling on anti-polio drives and measures to ensure vaccination staff’s compliance with standard operating procedures (SOPs) on Covid-19, while warning officials that district health officers in areas showing poor performance on the polio front would be replaced.

It might be recalled that polio vaccination drive and routine immunisation came to a halt in Sindh last year from March to July, following the Covid-19 outbreak.

This created an immunity gap among children and badly affected the polio situation in the country.

According to EOC officials, the situation has been addressed by the government through back-to-back campaigns since August 2020.

This year, only one polio case has been reported in Pakistan — in Balochistan in January.

The Pakistan Paediatric Association, Pakistan Islamic Medical Association as well as religious clerics endorse the oral polio vaccine as the safest and most effective way for not only preventing polio, but also eradicating it from the country.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2021