LAHORE, Sept 20: A third-party evaluation carried out by observers of two international organisations has declared that the Punjab government has achieved optimum target of anti-polio vaccine coverage for the first time in the history of Lahore.

The report has been compiled by the analysts of the World Health Organization and Unicef.

The WHO report says the polio vaccine coverage remained uniformly high in all 80 UCs of the provincial capital. It remained above 95 per cent in every UC.

WHO and Unicef officials carried out a survey of the 80 union councils in the provincial capital after a three-day round of anti-polio drive which started on Sept 10, and prepared a detailed report largely through random checking. The report has been forwarded to the provincial government as well as the WHO authorities.

The polio vaccine was administered to 1.4 million target population below five years. Around 3,000 teams of the health department and the city district government took part in the drive launched under Sub-National Immunization Day (SNIDs).

A senior official of the health department said this time the administration had adopted different strategies to get optimum results. It had hired the services of Pushto-speaking staff to administer vaccine to the children of Pakthun families, took edicts from religious scholars, involved khateebs of major mosques in the drive, lodged FIRs against those who resisted and sent female staff in high-rise buildings etc, he said.

A senior representative of the WHO said it was a ‘remarkable achievement’ and the Punjab government for the first time had materialised its efforts in the right direction to eradicate polio.

He said the WHO had given 95 per cent minimum target for the polio coverage in the highly-sensitive districts like Lahore, Rawalpindi, DG Khan, Muzaffargarh, Layyah, Rajanpur and Multan.

He said the independent observers of the WHO and Unicef would conduct surveys of the targeted districts after every round of anti-polio drive to analyse the proportions of the coverage to the target population. Various techniques were adopted to prepare the report, he said.

In the past, he said, the average target of polio coverage remained 75 to 85 per cent and on some occasions the target was achieved up to 90 per cent in some UCs.

“This time it was surprising that all 80 UCs achieved hundred per cent target, which is a good sign to proceed ahead to eradicate polio virus form the city,” the WHO official said.

The official lauded the role of senior officials including the DCO, the EDO (recently suspended) and the special assistant to chief minister on health. He said major concern of the WHO and Unicef representatives was the provincial capital housing more than nine million mix population including Pakhtun families.

He said the officials were conducting similar surveys of other highly-sensitive districts and the reports would be finalised soon.