Daily Times

“Districts need to show better performance to prevent polio virus transmission and reinfection in their districts,” said Ms Syedah Ramallah Ali, the Emergency Operations Centre Coordinator and Head of the Polio Programme in Punjab.

The coordinator said this while talking to top district management officials including Deputy Commissioner Mr Meesam Abbas and the health management team to review the performance of the health department with particular reference to polio eradication in Sialkot. “The presence of poliovirus in Sialkot is a matter of concern”, said Ms Ramallah while chairing a meeting of the district health team along with the Additional DC Ms Syedah Amina.

“The presence of poliovirus implies there are gaps. We need to find the gaps and fix them immediately”, the EOC coordinator instructed.

“We need to focus on high-risk union councils, also the areas which drain into polio environmental sites. If there are any gaps in training, we need to improve their quality urgently. The district needs to create a pool of trainers so the polio teams get better quality training”, urged Ms Ramallah.

The EOC coordinator expressed concern about the mobile populations saying they could be more vulnerable and at the same carriers of the virus.

“The district needs to ensure that such populations who are on the move must be vaccinated. There are more chances of reaching high coverage, if we make sure that all such settlements are mapped in the micro-plans including the names of children with their ages”, observed Ms Ramallah.

After the meeting, the district assured the coordinator that post-campaign analysis of data was the key in the resolution of all issues and the district was ready to conduct a review right after the campaign. The district assured the coordinator that laser focus emphasis will be laid on the registration of mobile populations and supportive supervision will be provided to the polio teams during this exercise.

The district, as instructed by the coordinator, agreed to enhance the security of polio teams especially those deployed at transit points. The district also pledged to improve the quality of micro-plans before the next campaign.