Bottom falls out from under PRSP’s polio initiative

District health establishments and Punjab Rural Support Programme (PRSP) combined have failed to control the spread of polio virus as six new cases have appeared in Punjab in 2011, Pakistan Today has learnt.
As per UNICEF’s reports, Pakistan is one of the worst countries in the world regarding polio as nearly 200 positive cases have been reported across the country.
Sources in the Health Department revealed that the PRSP has signed an agreement with the government under the chief minister’s initiative in primary health care. They said the PRSP has agreed to run a community based system and to make all primary health systems “more efficient” in the 12 districts of Southern Punjab. However, they said the programme had failed to deliver and control the disease because four out of six reported positive cases were in districts which come under the PRSP. As per details, two cases in Vehari, one is Lodhran and one in Rahim Yar Khan appeared last year, all under the PRSP.
“They have hired social organisers on very high salaries, who are supposed to go in the villages to convince people to get their children vaccinated, but on the contrary, the social organisers are not being utilised and mostly sit in offices and do clerical work,” they said, adding that the entire effort is “wasted”
if 30 or 40 children in every village are dropped and not vaccinated.
“That is the reason of the cases all of which have been reported in rural areas of southern Punjab…the situation would have been different if the communities had been mobilised,” they added.
Young Doctors Association (YDA) General Secretary Dr Salman Kazmi said the government should take notice of the situation as it spends billions of rupees to curb polio, which was spreading like it always had before. He further said India had reported only one case last year while Pakistan had 193 cases, clearly showing the country’s “inability” to handle a curable disease. He said the contract of the PRSP should be “terminated” considering the poor performance.
However, Punjab Health Secretary Jehanzaib Khan said global efforts were needed to curb the polio virus and it is “unfortunate” that cases have yet again been reported in Punjab “despite our utmost efforts”. To a question, he said the agreement that the government signed with the PRSP includes only “curative and not preventive” side and the prevention has been a duty of the district establishments of the Health Department. “A few months back we noticed the lack of coordination as a result of the diarchy and removed it…now both sides have been given to the PRSP since then…nonetheless it is unfortunate that new cases have appeared,” he added.