President Asif Ali Zardari, while reiterating the government’s commitment to undertake all efforts for complete eradication of polio virus from the country, on Tuesday advised the authorities concerned to follow innovative strategies in reaching out to those people and places that were still serving as reservoir of the virus and have so far remained under-served due to various reasons.
He said there was no reason why polio virus transmission could not be interrupted in the province if effective implementation of innovative approaches with optimum utilization of resources and proper vigilance was ensured.
The president said this while addressing a specially convened meeting here at Bilawal House to review the current situation of polio eradication efforts in Sindh.
Those who were present during the meeting included among others Federal Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Secretary General to the President, M. Salman Faruqui, Chief Minister (CM) Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Special Assistant to Prime Minister (PM) and PM’s Focal Person for Polio Eradication, Shahnaz Wazir Ali, provincial ministers, government officials and representatives of international partners against the polio disease.
The president advised the provincial governments and the authorities concerned to consider setting up permanent booths in collaboration with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) at all transit points of the provinces, when the attention of the meeting was drawn towards the fact that a large number of migrant population was among the major reasons for many children being left unattended during polio vaccination campaigns that were launched in the country from time to time.
The meeting was informed that Sindh province reported a total of 33 polio cases in 2011 as compared to 27 polio cases in 2010. The province had reported 3 type-1 polio cases so far in 2012, from Hyderabad, Larkana and Mirpur Khas districts respectively.
It was informed that overall provincial vaccination coverage by finger marking in Sindh province was 98 percent. All the districts/towns had 95 percent vaccination coverage by finger marking with the exception of Orangi, Liaqatabad and Gulberg towns of Karachi. The meeting was apprised that according to a market survey conducted in all the districts/towns of Sindh province, overall finger marking coverage in Sindh was 95 percent except in Shikarpur, Karachi and Tharparkar. Karachi showed more than 90 percent vaccination coverage by finger marking except a few areas that included Orangi, Liaqatabad, North Nazimabad, Bin Qasim, Kemari and SITE.
The President in his address emphasized that polio eradication was a doable job and he saw no reason as to why this crippling disease could not be permanently eliminated from the country.
He said that late Benazir Bhutto formally launched polio eradication campaign in the country and the first child to be immunized against this disease was her own daughter Aseefa Zardari, who was now the ambassador for polio eradication in Pakistan.
The President directed the provincial government and the authorities concerned to especially focus on addressing epidemiological challenges that included the presence of wild polio virus in the sewerage water and the immunity gap and performance failures in some parts of the metropolitan.
He emphasized that special attention be paid to high risk population where vaccination activities had remained sub-optimal so far and necessitates essential modification in the overall strategy.
He also said that special attention should be paid to raising awareness about this crippling disease in far reaching areas of the province where the literacy rate was low and people did not had access to adequate medical facilities.
The president urged the commissioners and deputy commissioners (DCs) of the province to personally monitor the campaigns and ensure that all the issues in reaching out to maximum population were addressed.
He also thanked the international community for assisting Pakistan in polio eradication. The president reiterated the government’s commitment to provide security to the international health teams which were helping the people and the government in eliminating polio virus from the country.
Introspection needed to understand dwindling vaccination coverage
Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA) President (elect), Prof.Mohammad Iqbal Memon said during a press conference on Tuesday that introspection is needed at every level to control the decline in routine vaccination coverage from 94% in early 1990s to current levels of thirty percent or so.
He said the inability to eradicate polio virus despite focussed campaigns during the last 20 years was a cause of serious concern for every section of society in the country.
The senior child specialist said that the inability to get rid of the crippling disease coupled with a decline in immunization coverage of other vaccine preventable diseases had aggravated morbidity and mortality incidence among the under 15 population in the country that constituted 45% of the country’s total population. In reply to a question, he said there were 4,000 paediatricians in the country, including 2,000 who were registered members of PPA. “This is in a scenario where there are 55 million under 15 children with one paediatrician catering to the health needs of 55,000 children,” he said. The child specialist in reply to another question said perception among a certain section of people about any co-relation between contraception and oral polio vaccine (OPV) also needed to be rectified.
“This particular group and those having any such suspicion need to ponder as to why during the past 20 years our population has doubled and not plunged despite the fact that since early 1990’s our children, up to five years, are being consistently administered OPV,” said Prof. Iqbal Memon.
The paediatrician also expressed his reservation about the professional and moral commitment of people engaged in the polio free campaigns. He was candid in his reply to a query about the ability of countrymen to achieve millennium development goals (MDGs), with specific reference to child health, by 2015.
“I fear that we may not even achieve 50% of these targets even by 2030,” he said and urged for strong willed efforts at every level that would prove him wrong.
He said respiratory tract infection had largely turned to be a disease peculiar to city and town based children who were exposed to environmental pollution.
PPA President (elect) said the association was committed to promote child health through public awareness and regular continuing medical education programs for general physicians. He agreed that there was a shortage of child specialists in the rural areas and attributed it to poor infrastructure and lack of facilities.