Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui has taken strong exception to ‘refusals’ registered during the recently concluded special oral polio vaccine (OPV) campaign in high risk union councils of the metropolis.
Chairing a meeting to review the special OPV campaign, he said that 93 percent coverage against the target of 2,00,352 children was simply not acceptable.
“We can not deprive 2,04,033 children who were not made accessible to the polio teams,” the commissioner said.
He told the meeting, attended by town health officers, deputy commissioners, provincial health department officers, that hindrance created in the administration of oral polio vaccine (OPV) can simply not be tolerated.
“Be they the parents of concerned children, community members or influential of the area – no one will be allowed to affect our efforts towards polio eradication,” he said. The meeting that was also attended by the representatives of WHO and UNICEF was told that refusals mainly came from parents’ side, details of which were duly recorded by the teams of vaccinators with optimum security cover by the police department.
The commissioner reiterated that no complacency could be tolerated in protection of children against the crippling disease. He said the Karachi administration may also resort to legal action against those refusing to be part of a national campaign – polio-free Pakistan – in minimum possible time.
