HYDERABAD, March 3: Problems in the polio campaign have almost been overcome and the virus will be eradicated from Sindh within the next few months.

This was stated by MNA Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, chairperson of the President’s Oversight Committee for Polio while speaking at a press conference here on Sunday.

Earlier, she presided over a polio review meeting held in Shahbaz Building with district officers of Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions.

Dr Pechuho told the media that the spread of polio virus had been successfully contained and it was evident from the fact that only 58 polio cases had surfaced in 2012, a significant drop from 198 cases in 2011. Moreover, she said that so far this year only five polio cases had been reported from all over the country. One case was reported from Sindh, one from Punjab and three from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

She said that the main hurdle in eradicating polio was refusal by parents to vaccinate their children. “However, we have almost overcome this problem through strict vigilance over polio eradication efforts and persuading parents with combined efforts of district officers and opinion leaders.”

Polio vaccination had been included in routine vaccination under the current strategy so that a maximum coverage could be attained, she said. She said that polio virus had been detected in sewerage lines in Hyderabad, as well as Gadap and Gulshan-i-Iqbal in Karachi. “Therefore, we repeated polio immunisation programmes in these areas in a short span of time,” she added.

According to her, the campaigns seem to have delivered good results and it is being hoped that Hyderabad would be declared as ‘environmental polio free’ district within a few weeks.

Responding to a question about terrorist attacks on polio staff, Dr Pechuho said that strict security measures had been adopted to ensure full protection to polio vaccination teams. She condemned terrorist attacks on the staff of the noble cause.

National focal person on polio Shahnaz Wazir Ali said that the president had taken serious notice of the menace of polio.

According to her, only four polio cases had been reported from Sindh in 2012 and only one case has been reported this year so far. Ms Ali said that the oversight committee was working hard, and observed that Dr Pechuho had been conducting divisional and district-level meetings to monitor and resolve issues in the anti-polio drive.

Presiding over the polio review meeting held in the conference hall of the Hyderabad Development Authority, MNA Pechuho issued directives to district officers to set up a four-member committee in each district within the next 48 hours. The committees would be headed by the additional deputy commissioner-1 concerned, while members would include the district health officer, a World Health Organisation (WHO) representative and the district superintendent of vaccination (DSV).

She said the committees were supposed to maintain record of the available vaccination stock and used or wasted medicines. The committees would pay surprise visits to every vaccination centre within their respective jurisdiction to ensure proper use of vaccine, maintenance of cold chain and check immunisation coverage. She called for strict action by district officers against the parents refusing to get their children vaccinated, adding that the whole nation could not be put at risk by ignoring such refusals.

Lauding efforts by the Hyderabad district administration in eradicating polio and establishing a control room Dr Pechuho directed all deputy commissioners of the Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions to set up similar control rooms within their districts as well for effective monitoring and onward transmission of collected data to the provincial control room.

She instructed Mirpurkhas district officers to visit their areas again and revise micro plans to ensure that every deserving child, be it from a nomadic family, was vaccinated.

She expressed her displeasure over negligence by some officers of the Expanded Programme of Immunisation in Mirpurkhas division, and called for strict disciplinary measures instead of just issuance of show-cause notices to them.

Deputy commissioners and district health officers briefed Dr Pechuho about the performance and the problems being faced by them in supervising anti-polio campaigns.