ISLAMABAD: As polio cases in Pakistan continue to rise during the ongoing year, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has approved the National Emergency Action Plan for Polio 2024-25 to overcome the remaining hurdles in the eradication of the polio virus from the country.

As per the plan, a special emphasis will be laid on vaccinating mobile and migrant populations as well as the Pak-Afghan coordination.

“It is a significant development after three years, when the programme worked in a reactive mode without a real sense of urgency, detecting and responding to the virus instead of staying ahead of it,” an official of the polio programme said while requesting anonymity. The official said the programme would improve management, oversight, and accountability and quickly plug the widespread immunity gap through efficient campaigns.

Besides, focused interventions for improving routine immunity in critical areas, targeted use of additional tools like fractional dose inactivated polio vaccine, health camps, and integrated service delivery encompassing water, sanitation and hygiene (Wash) and nutrition in key pockets of concern would be the focus on the project, he added.

New strategy to focus on inoculating migrant populations, coordinate with Kabul

Similarly, a special emphasis will be on vaccinating mobile and migrant populations as well as Pak-Afghan coordination.

“Media engagement…has been stressed to raise awareness, enhance risk perceptions and urge essential as well as campaign vaccination. Parents will be urged to assume responsibility for the health and vaccination of their children as well as the ones around them,” he said.

In light of this project, PM’s focal person for polio Ayesha Raza Farooq, in a briefing at the National Emergency Operation Centre, said it was the beginning of a new approach, learnt from the “successful” Covid-19 response

In this year alone, at least 39 cases of polio have been reported across the country and the polio virus has reached over 60 districts. Of the 37 cases detected from across Pakistan, 20 have been reported in Balochis­tan, 10 in Sindh, five in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each in Punjab and Islamabad.

Officials, however, said the provinces were making efforts to counter the steady spike in these cases. A nationwide polio vaccination campaign is also scheduled to be conducted from October 28 to November 3.

In southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the campaign will be conducted in two phases.

Phase-I from October 28 in four districts, i.e., Bannu, North Waziristan, South Waziristan Lower, and South Waziristan Upper, and Phase-II from November 11 (tentatively) in three districts, i.e., Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan, and Tank. In three districts of Mirpurkhas Division, i.e., Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar, and Umerkot, the campaign has been preponed to October 25 due to Diwali.

“Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz over the weekend chaired a preparedness review meeting for the October nationwide campaign. The Sindh CM will chair a meeting on Thursday and the KP chief secretary will hold a meeting on Tuesday (today). Balochistan is yet to convey its schedule,” said the official.

The official said the five-day campaign would be divided into three days of campaign and two days of catch-up and a total of 405,504 frontline polio workers would participate in the drive.

A total of 45.4 million under-five children will be targeted during the campaign, including 23.3 million children in Punjab, 10.6 million children in Sindh, 7.3 million children in KP, 2.65 million children in Balochistan, 0.74 million children in AJK, 281,232 children in Gilgit-Baltistan, and 461,125 children in Islamabad.

During this campaign, the bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV) will be administered.

Additionally, Vitamin A supplements will also be administered along with the vaccine to children aged from six months to five years. The campaign is fully synchronised with Afghanistan, which will conduct a sub-national campaign covering all of its districts bordering Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2024