The Health Department has been warned by donors and monitoring agencies to strictly monitor its polio immunisation campaigns or face serious consequences including travel restrictions and tough visa policies, The Express Tribune has learnt.
A senior official in the Health Department told The Express Tribune that they had received the warning after a fresh polio case- one-year old Umar Daraz – was reported in Toba Tek Singh.
“The Independent Monitoring Board for Polio Eradication and the World Health Organisation’s Executive Board are scheduled to discuss the measures to be taken at a meeting to be held towards the end of January. We have been told that the matter of placing restrictions on Pakistanis would be on the agenda. We have to improve our immunisation campaigns to avoid the restrictions,” the official said.
An Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) report says this is the third polio case to be reported in Kamalia teshil of Toba Tek Singh, in less than six months.
A WHO official told The Express Tribune that travel restrictions would not be limited to the Punjab. “India has made it mandatory for all Pakistanis visiting India after January 30 to show a record of their polio vaccination,” he said. The Punjab was once considered the most successful province in terms of polio eradication, “the new cases reported from the province are very alarming,” he said. “The Punjab is not like Balochistan or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Chances of an epidemic here are way more than in other provinces…the situation is so much more serious,” the official said.
He said that Pakistan had the worst record of polio eradication in the world. In 2013, 11 cases of polio were reported in Afghanistan compared to 30 in 2012. In Nigeria, less than half of the polio cases reported in 2012 were reported in 2013. In Pakistan, 58 cases were reported in 2012 and 85 in 2013…a 40 per cent increase. “One country has already imposed travel restrictions. Others may follow suit if the situation does not improve,” the official said.
He said the virus sample was found to have come from Peshawar. It had also been found in Multan and Sahiwal. The third case was on the border of Sahiwal and Toba Tek Singh. “If three cases are reported from the same area in less than three months it shows serious problems with routine immunisation,” the official said.
He said that polio virus from Pakistan had recently been traced at the Gaza Strip and in Israel. It had earlier been found in Egypt as well. “If a country is exporting the polio virus, it will definitely face visa and travel restrictions,” the official said.
A rapid response is required to strengthen routine immunisation, he said.
A meeting headed by Special Secretary Babar Hayat Tarar reviewed the 2013 polio situation in the province on Friday. A statement issued by the Health Department afterwards stated that the meeting had reviewed the polio and measles situation in the province during 2013 and expressed concerns that it had not been a good year with regard to both diseases. Health Director General Zahid Pervaiz said written orders would be sent to health EDOs warning them that stern action would be taken against them if bogus entries were made to the routine EPI coverage reports. The meeting also took notice of the dereliction of duty by the staff during routine immunisation and the anti-measles and polio campaigns. No leniency would be shown to inefficient officers or staff, the statement said.
Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique said the health officials in Toba Tek Singh had been transferred for poor performance and had been directed to file a report to the department. He said the health EDO had also been issued a last warning to improve the situation in the district. He said a special anti-polio campaign would be launched in Toba Tek Singh from January 8 to January 11.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 4th, 2014.