Deputy Commissioner D I Khan, Nisar Ahmed Khan has said that refusals in the district has come down drastically while in the nearby area of Frontier Region (FR) zero refusals have been recorded as the district administration stand committed to polio eradication and was taking every measure to stamp out the crippling disease from the region. During the recent campaign that ended on April 1st, 2015 only 17 refusals were recorded in the district that would be covered soon as we don't let these refusals linger on, he said while talking to this correspondent.
Nisar Ahmed Khan said that life of polio workers is very important for him and district administration was providing them every possible security adding that it was his mission to make D.I.Khan, a polio-free and for this every child in the district has to be vaccinated. He said no polio case has been reported in D I Khan district during the last couple of years except one that too was in a migrant family. According to the Deputy Commissioner, D I Khan is spread over approximately 7000 sq km divided in 47 union councils and five tehsils with target population of about 0.3 million for polio vaccination for which more than 600 polio teams have been constituted.
Nisar Ahmed Khan opined that the in order to eradicate polio virus we have taken appropriate steps to stop transmission of the virus in the district. "We have strengthened the Union Council Polio Eradicating Committee (UPEC), made it functional and effective by making sure that it meets regularly and work according to National Emergency Action Plan (NEAP) protocols", he added.
He said that if any member of the UPEC show absenteeism from its meeting then we officially call his explanation and make him accountable, so mostly the meetings are attended regularly for pre and post campaign activities and mandatory record is kept. Moreover, he went on to add that the other key step to improving performance of teams is proper micro planning besides we make sure that UPEC prepare appropriate micro plans and then update and validate it accordingly as its UPEC's principle responsibility.
"Females are key members in the team and we are trying to increase their number in the vaccination teams", he stated. He said that District Polio Monitoring Team (DPMT) continuously monitor the campaigns and identify issues which we address there and then. Referring to those among the community who refuse polio vaccination, DC D I Khan said that we try to convince them through negotiation and persuasion and use every means to accept the polio vaccine. In case of chronic refusals we issue arrest warrants so as to ensure vaccination of every child, he said. Dr Qamar Iqbal acting District Health Officer (DHO) D. I. Khan said that with the support of district administration we have strengthened the monitoring of polio campaigns which is giving us good results. He said that to make the polio programme a success we took action against poor performers in the programme with the help of district administration and have successfully addressed issues related to logistics and operations.
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