RAWALPINDI: Punjab Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) Coordinator and head of the polio eradication programme in Punjab Khizer Afzaal Chaudhary on Thursday asked the districts to chalk out new plans with emphasis on high-risk mobile population movements so that the quality of upcoming polio eradication campaign could be improved.

He was speaking to officials of the district health authorities of Rawalpindi and Attock in the aftermath of a special campaign conducted in both districts in response to a positive sample found in the garrison city.The CEOs of Rawalpindi and Attock district health authorities as well as partner staff from both the districts participated in the meeting visa video link.

The EOC head stressed reviewing movement patterns of high-risk mobile population movements and called for identification of additional transit sites in Rawalpindi’s Taxila tehsil.

“Rawalpindi is far more sensitive than any other area in Punjab due to its proximity with polio hotspots and frequent movement of high-risk population. After isolation of wild poliovirus in environmental samples recently, it is now an area of international concern,” he added.

The EOC coordinator called on both the districts to work on a granular plan for improving the campaign quality before the start of the next polio eradication campaign. He assured the districts that the EOC was ready to provide every support in lieu of additional resources and human resource for deployment at the transit sites.

The EOC head instructed the CEOs to monitor the campaign themselves and recommend action against officials as well as workers who were under-performing.

Mr Khizer suggested exclusion of under-performing officials from the next supplementary immunisation activity.

He instructed the officials to focus on improving the catch-up days’ quality through “sweep strategy”. He added that the entire area must be swept especially those houses which had been marked as having “zero children” or “not-available” children.

Punjab has recently wrapped up a campaign after poliovirus was detected in one of the environmental sites in Rawalpindi.The campaign called Outbreak Response (OBR) was held in five tehsils of Rawalpindi, four tehsils of Attock and one union council of Mianwali.

The vaccination campaign was held in Fatehjang, Hazro, Attock and Hassanabdal of Attock district. While in Rawalpindi, the campaign was organised in Gujar Khan, Rawalpindi Cantonment, Rawalpindi city, Rawalpindi rural and Taxila tehsils.

In Mianwali, the campaign was held in the Afghan refugee camp.Over 1.96 million children were vaccinated in the campaign.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2023