ISLAMABAD: Our hospitals and airports are not known for orderliness but the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) and the international departure lounge of the Islamabad airport look in real mess these days, as witnessed by two reporters of Dawn on Monday.

It is all because the World Health Organisation has made it mandatory for every person leaving Pakistan to carry a Polio Vaccination Certificate.

Disorderly behaviour was in evidence at both the places where worried out-bound passengers struggled to get the certificate.

Vaccinators at the emergency anti-polio counter set up at the airport, however, insisted that the facility was only for emergency cases.

All other departing passengers should have secured the certificate from their area hospital.

Panicky passengers and overwhelmed health staff find the other at fault

However, the passengers were not aware that government-run hospitals provided that facility and thought they had to take anti-polio drops at the airport.

“It was difficult for me to visit Rawalpindi to get the certificate,” said an Abu Dhabi-bound passenger, Raja Ahmed, who came from Gujar Khan and did not know that he could have received the certificate from the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in his hometown.

“So I must get the drops here at the airport,” he demanded.

Back at the Pims polio counter, the hospital staff was issuing the certificate within minutes but wanted the seekers to form a queue and not mob the counter.

No sooner, the Pims officials succeeded in forcing them to stand in a queue, but someone jumped it and disorder returned.

However, the hospital staff was seen entertaining some certificate seekers out of turn when a queue did form.

That enraged Mohsin Imran, Senior Manager Research of PTCL, waiting in the queue, who launched into a heated argument with the accused Pims official.

“I am going to Dubai for training and have been waiting in the queue but Pims officials continuously administered vaccine out of turn,” he fumed.

Pims official Muhammad Shabbir retorted that it has become a habit for the people to pick up fights for nothing.

Health officials at the airport had other kinds of problems with the certificate-seeking passengers.

Sixty-year-old Abdul Rasheed, travelling to Dubai, could not fill the form.

“I had to seek the help of other passengers for that because the men at the polio counter said they were too busy to help me out.”

Unlike him, educated Ms Tahira Sharif, going to Sharjah with her three children, had come prepared but still found herself in trouble.

“My children had anti-polio drops but the vaccinators ask me to produce the certificate. I had the hospital cards showing regular immunization of my children but they wanted the new certificate issued by the health department or a hospital,” she said.

Eventually, she decided to administer the polio drops to her children again.

“The government should honour hospital cards of regular immunisation against seven diseases, including polio,” she pleaded.

Passenger Muhammad Akbar from Bagh, Azad Kashmir, was in panic.

“My travel agent misinformed me. He told me not to worry about the polio vaccination certificate as the health department will provide me polio drops at the airport, much like the passengers going on pilgrimage to Makkah,” he said.

Health Officer Dr Irfan Tahir told Dawn that in the last two days more than 3,000 travellers were administered anti-polio vaccination at the emergency counter at the international departure lounge of the airport.

“Though, set up for emergency cases, the counter had to serve more than 90 per cent of the travellers. There is a dire need to create awareness among intending travellers that they have to get the polio vaccination one month before the travel,” he said.

“We had arranged vaccination for 10 days but all was consumed in just two days. Meanwhile, the federal government has supplied more vaccine,” he said.

At the Pims polio counter, the staff is confronted with a different shortage, apart from short tempers. Most of the people coming for the certificate ask for a pen to fill the form.

“We have run out of our supply of ballpoint pens as hardly anyone returns the borrowed pen,” said a staffer.

Then there are the uneducated and the orthodox that worry about the side effects of the polio vaccine and inquire what kind of precautionary measures they should take to save themselves.

A German citizen, who cannot be named, refused to take the anti-polio vaccine, telling the Pims staff that he already had it in his home country.

He just wanted the certificate so that he is not detained at his destination because he had been to Pakistan.

After examining his German vaccination card, the Pims issued him the certificate.

“I refused to take the vaccine because I thought it could be risky to take the oral polio vaccine,” the German citizen told Dawn.

Some persons also came to replace their certificate because the new certificate, which is smaller in size than the previous one, can fit in their passport easily.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2014