LAHORE: Amid reports of aggravating poliovirus situation in several districts, the Punjab government has appointed the new head of the Polio Programme & Emergency Operations Centre (EOC).

The officer, Adeel Tasawar, is already holding multiple positions and assignments in the primary and secondary healthcare department, including additional secretary development & finance, project director of the Project Management Unity (PMU) and head of the strengthening of development wing.

Mr Tasawar has been picked as the programme coordinator on the recommendations of Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Secretary Nadia Saqib, said an official, privy to the information.

He said Punjab also reported its first case of poliovirus in four years, marking a significant setback to the province’s fight against the crippling disease when a six-year-old male child from Chakwal was reported to be carrying the virus in August this year. Before that, the last case in Punjab was reported in 2020.

Similarly, he said, environment samples for wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) had been tested positive in various cities, including Lahore, Rawalpindi, Attock, Mianwali and Bahawalpur, putting at risk the health of hundreds of thousands of children under five in the nearby districts of the province.

The detection of environmental samples in many districts of the Punjab province in a year raised serious concerns among the higher authorities who expressed utter displeasure at the performance of the officers associated with the polio programme.

The official said the programme had been in the limelight as it persistently missed thousands of children during each campaign for polio drops.

In a statement, the spokesperson said the new head of the polio programme and EOC Coordinator of Punjab, Adeel Tasawar, reiterated pledge to eradicate polio, saying the commitment shown by the top leadership of the province, including Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Secretary Nadia Squib by holding campaign reviews every day, showed that polio eradication was top priority of the government.

Mr Tasawar sounded an alarm that Punjab’s children were at the risk of imported virus circulation, which could not be allowed at any cost. He underlined that genomic sequencing results indicated that the virus was linked to Afghanistan and other endemic zones. As final data continued to pour in on Sunday, the preliminary stats showed that over 23m children had been vaccinated till the sixth day of the campaign, the EOC coordinator said.

Lahore topped the list of most vaccinated children with over 2.2m children getting vaccinated till the sixth day of the campaign. It was followed by Faisalabad and Rahim Yar Khan with over 1.5m and 1.1m vaccinations, respectively.

The national campaign was launched across Punjab on Oct 28, targeting 23.3m children. The campaign continued for seven days in mega districts including Lahore, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad.

The spokesperson for the polio programme said Punjab hit a key milestone on Sunday, wrapping up its third and last national polio immunisation drive of the year. He said the polio teams vaccinated thousands of ‘missed children’ on the final day of the campaign to block off any possibility of poliovirus circulation in the province.

Punjab had already wrapped up the polio campaign in 33 districts of Punjab on Friday except Lahore, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad where it was completed on Sunday.

Over 200,000 teams were seen rushing to houses in their respective areas, which were marked as having ‘not-available’ children.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2024