- More than 0.2 million children still remain unadministered by vaccination
- CM directs to send polio teams to schools
- Statistics observe a sharp increase in measles cases
Provincial Anti-polio Task Force (PAPTF) on Tuesday divulged that traces of polio-virus were found in five water samples collected from 11 different areas of Karachi, a private media outlet reported.
This came out in a meeting headed by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah with other stakeholders including Health Dr Minister Azra Pechuho, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Ali Shah, Principal Secretary to CM Sajid Jamal Abro, provincial secretaries of local government and health, Karachi Commissioner Saleh Farooqui, Additional IG Dr Ameer Shaikh, World Health Oraganisation (WHO) Team Leader Dr Abdi Rehman, UNICEF Team Leader Mr Lieven Desomer, BMGF Team Leader Dr Altaf Bosan, Rotary International Chair Aziz Memon, all divisional commissioners and deputy commissioner of Karachi and other concerned.
PAPTF Programme Incharge Fayyaz Jatoi during on this occasion said, “From these, the samples from Sohrab Goth, Chakorah Nala, Muhammad Khan Colony, Baldia, and Nagi Nala have traces of the polio-virus.” He also informed that samples collected from Sukkur in the same month also had traces of the virus.
During the briefing, it was stated that as many as 118,557 children in Karachi had not been administered the polio vaccine owing to the lack of approval and consent from their parents.
The stakeholders were further told that between April to September 2018, about 96,906 children in Karachi were not administered the vaccine because they were not present at their homes at the time polio teams visited. At least 88,464 children from rural Sindh were also not administered the vaccine due to the same reason.
Fayaz Jatoi said that in 2018 to this date no polio case has reported in Sindh as compared to last year when two cases were reported and both were from Karachi, Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Gadap.
“It is through all of our collective efforts that not a single case of polio has been reported in Sindh,” CM said, adding that his government is committed to eradicating polio from the country.
After the briefing, the Sindh CM said that polio teams should be sent to all schools in order to ensure that polio drops are administered to all children.
“We need to further strengthen our efforts against the virus to make sure that it is eliminated,” Murad said, noting that Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries that still have not eliminated the virus entirely.
Directs the task force to launch campaign for the eradication of polio and measles, the chief minister reiterated his resolve to eradicate polio and measles from the province of Sindh by intensifying vaccination campaigns and launching awareness drives.
Murad Ali Shah said that the leadership of the DCs was required more now than ever before. Because they were present in the field. “I want to you [DCs] to control increasing community resistance to the polio vaccination
The chief minister directed Minister Health Dr Azra Pechuho to improve the performance of the district and taluka Health Officers in some districts like Malir, West, Central, Jacobabad, Kamber, Sujawal and Matirai where frequent positive environmental samples were found.
He also expressed his displeasure on inadequate support form directorate of private schools and directed education department to talk to them to cooperate with polio teams in administering polio vaccine to their school children, otherwise, take strict action against them.
MEASLES CASES:
The meeting was told that the measles cases have shown an increase during the last four years. In 2015, 1175 measles suspected cases were reported, of the 281 were found confirmed and eight patients died.
In 2016 out of 3421 suspected cases 1729 were found confirmed, of them, 19 died. In 2017, 5779 suspected cases were tested, of them, 3086 found confirmed and 35 died and in 2018 suspected cases increased to 7778, of the 788 have been confirmed and 122 died.
The chief minister said that the situation is quite alarming and there should a thorough investigation into the causes of a measles outbreak. The health department must do its investigative work and simultaneously, the vigorous and focused campaign for measles vaccination be launched.
