- Senator Ayesha pays a surprise visit to temporary settlements of nomads, other localities in Islamabad
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio Eradication Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq on Tuesday said that the Pakistani nation has shown great resolve to reduce polio cases and by ensuring high-quality national and sub-national campaigns in April and May, it will help give the virus a final push out of the country.
She said this during her surprise visit to suburbs of Islamabad. The senator paid a surprise visit to various localities in Islamabad including Tarlai and temporary settlements of nomads. She was accompanied by National Coordinator for Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) Dr Rana Safdar and other senior officers of the Health Ministry, ICT and CDA.
Noting that the polio drive in the capital is critical, the senator said that the prime minister has constituted a special task force to specifically monitor the campaign in twin cities and report back to him on daily basis to ensure maximum coverage during this and all the upcoming campaigns.
Though there has been no case reported from the twin cities for over two years but virus has been found in the environmental samples of both Islamabad and Rawalpindi drainage thus raising the concerns amongst officials and communities. She said that she would be personally monitoring the campaign in the city during every round.
She also took notice of gaps in the provision of routine immunisation services against nine deadly diseases of children in the area and issued directions to ensure that every child is immunised. Talking to the parents and communities during her visit, the senator urged all segments of the society especially the parents to facilitate the front line workers (Sehat Muhafiz) in this noble cause.
Several community elders welcomed the senator and thanked the government to complete eradication of polio. “Our Sehat Muhafiz have brought us so close to polio eradication that we cannot afford to relax hence I and leadership of EOC have come out to support our valiant teams for getting rid of this disease completely,” Senator Ayesha said.
The second last polio campaign of the current low transmission season has commenced from Monday across all provinces and areas of the country except Bajour agency of the Tribal Areas starting later. A total of 37.71 million under children under five years of age will be vaccinated including 19.38 million in Punjab, 8.85 million in Sindh, 5.73 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 2.46 million in Balochistan, one million in FATA, 0.7 million in AJK, 0.238 million in Gilgit Baltistan and 0.33 million children in Islamabad.
It is a three-day campaign plus one day catch up elsewhere and five days plus two days catch up in core reservoir areas. During this campaign, Vitamin-A supplement will also be administered to around 35 million children aged between 6-59 months along with OPV aimed at boosting immunity against diseases including measles.
A total of 260,000 personnel will strive to achieve set targets across the country including 24,661 area in charges, 7,977 UC medical officers, 190,573 mobile, 10,235 fixed and 12,148 transit team members. The current polio epidemiology in the country is best ever observed with case decline from 306 in 2014 to 54 in 2015 to 20 in 2016 and 8 in 2017. In the current year, only one polio case has so far been reported from district Dukki, Balochistan.
Senator Ayesha also inspected the children playing in the streets to see whether their fingers had been marked after they were vaccinated. She talked to polio teams and checked their tally sheets. She also advised polio teams to pay attention to children who may be visiting relatives since there is a possibility that such children are missed in the drive.
She further directed that each house, including makeshift shanties, nomads and travelling families with under five children should be administered polio drops and properly marked with permanent markers to ensure each household is covered.