LAHORE: Head of the polio programme in Punjab and Emergency Operations Centre Coordinator Khizer Afzaal has called upon district health authorities to give complete ownership to polio eradication, saying laid approach shown by the health administrations during the polio campaigns will not be tolerated.
The EOC coordinator was chairing a February post-campaign review meeting held on Thursday. Chief Executive Officers of 36 districts along with other key health officials as well as partners’ staff joined the meeting via a video link.
The EOC coordinator expressed concerns over below quality micro plans as well as unplanned training sessions held to orient polio teams. Raising concern about complacency shown by district health authorities, the EOC coordinator highlighted that micro plans need to be updated regularly so that every child is reached during polio campaigns. He called upon the CEOs to take personal interest in pre-campaign preparations about polio campaigns.
“Attention needs to be paid to planning the training sessions to ensure that no untrained team member is deployed during the campaign,” the EOC head underlined.
“All those officers not serious about polio eradication should think something else. Deputy Commissioners need to be informed regarding the performance of the district health administrations in polio campaigns”, he added.
During the meeting, the EOC coordinator was briefed on field validation of polio campaign data. The EOC coordinator showed displeasure about data quality on coverage of children.
He laid emphasis on data quality and directed health officials that workers showing laxity in data quality needed to be taken to task.
“While world watches us closely and waits for polio eradication, virus continues to be detected in major cities. Instead of cutting a sorry figure, we need to improve our performance. Laid back approach will not be tolerated”, he instructed.
The EOC coordinator also reviewed data on zero doze children identified in the polio campaigns and directed districts to enter the statistics in the system in two days.
During the review the EOC coordinator was briefed on vaccine use as well as wastage rate. He called upon district administrations to use polio vaccine judiciously by avoiding under usage as well as wastage.
Laying stress on quality assurance of polio campaigns, the EOC head informed the participants that quality assurance indicators of the polio campaigns have been further tightened. “There will be no intermediate results. It will be either green or red. No yellow areas”, he highlighted.
The EOC head disclosed that Punjab was planning a campaign to respond to polio virus detection in environmental samples. “The campaign scope is being finalized but the districts include Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan, Okara, Kasur, and some union councils of Rahim yar Khan as well as Rajanpur”, he disclosed.
The response to the samples will be followed by an SNIDs in selected districts in April, Afzaal said.
The EOC coordinator urged districts to focus on transit points as virus was moving with families. He reiterated that districts where transit points are located needed to scale up monitoring of these points and ensure every child is vaccinated.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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