Newly elected chairpersons of union councils from Islamabad pledged to mobilise and motivate communities, and work alongside the ‘Sehat Muhafiz’ in and around the federal capitol to ensure Islamabad remains polio free.
A batch of these elected chairpersons of urban union councils of Islamabad gathered in the National Emergency Operations Centre to get a first hand briefing on the situation of routine immunisation and polio eradication in the capital.
The briefing was organised with an aim to sensitise the local government representatives for their meaningful engagement in the polio eradication initiative and strengthening routine immunisation.
Islamabad Mayor Sheikh Ansar Aziz through his special message ensured the support of Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) in improving the current state of affairs to progress routine immunisation and polio eradication initiative.
“I nominate all newly elected chairpersons of the union councils of Islamabad as focal persons for polio campaigns to take ownership of the cause”, expressed the mayor in his message.
Dr Rana Muhamamd Safdar briefed the participants on the mode of transmission of polio virus and repercussions of not being polio free. Stressing on the importance of the immunisation, Rana apprised the participants that about 30 million children still do not have access to basic immunisation services and almost three million die each year from vaccine preventable diseases.
“Before the launch of eradication efforts, polio used to infect 350,000 children globally every year”, said Dr Rana in his presentation. He further highlighted that reaching and vaccinating every child in each round is the only way to win this war against the virus. Vaccinating a child multiple times adds to his/her immunity, he added.
Highlighting the issues specific to Islamabad, Dr Rana said that disintegrated health infrastructure of the capital, deficient human resource particularly in the CDA, high risk mobile populations spread all across the city are the main causes of concern. Moreover Dr Rana stressed on high quality supportive supervision and real time monitoring and the need to update micro-plans.
He urged the local government representatives to participate in union council Polio Eradication Committees to critically review preparedness for each campaign and support in raising appropriate teams in each UC.
“International public health community now agrees that vaccination is the top public health achievement of the 20th Century,” said Dr Rana.
Chairpersons of union councils during the question answer session raised various points UC-28 Chairperson Fauzia Arshad said that the health department of CDA never contacted her during any polio campaign. She further highlighted that information about vaccine safety and efficacy should be made public through media. UC-27 Chairperson Anjum Shahzad Tanoli highlighted the need of local and trustworthy teams for polio campaigns.
