KARACHI, May 21: The Sindh health department will field its own team of senior officials to monitor the special anti-polio vaccinations to be administered to children in various districts of Sindh during the mop-up campaign planned to be conducted in 14 districts of the province from May 26, it was learnt on Wednesday.

Sources in the department said the provincial minister for health, Dr Saghir Ahmad, had a meeting with the director of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), Sindh, Dr Mazhar A Khamisani, and other officials and issued directives to intensify the surveillance and monitoring against polio.

Of the total of nine cases reported from the country during the current year, Sindh has a share of eight with one each being reported and confirmed in Nawabshah, Hyderabad, Shikarpur, Karachi, Mirpurkhas, Naushehro Feroze, Jacobabad and Dadu.

Besides the newly polio affected districts, excluding Karachi, Jacobabad and Shikarpur, nine more districts -- Thatta, Badin, Tharparkar, Umerkot, Tando Allahyar, Tando Mohammad Khan, Matiari, Jamshoro, Sanghar (excluding its desert portion) -- have also been included in the areas to be covered during the mop-up activities which would be undertaken for three days.

The main reasons for the repeated polio cases since January 2008 are said to be inadequate coverage due to lack of supervision and weakness of social mobilization due to lack of empowerment and commitment at all levels of society, said a source.

It was said that though the WHO and Unicef post their teams of experts and supervisors during the polio immunization campaigns, now the authorities sensing the severity of the polio situation in the province have decided to send senior officials of the health department, including the health secretary, to at least one district to monitor activities.

The Sindh health minister will also make a special visit to a district in the interior of Sindh for monitoring and surveillance purposes during the mop-up campaign, added the source.

About 3.7 million deserving children in 14 districts of central Sindh would be administered oral polio drops during the mop-up campaign.

The international agencies and national health organisations are pinning much hope on the upcoming mop-up campaigns as far as eradication of the dreaded virus is concerned. “The more we vaccinate a child the more the immunity level rises reducing the potential risk of contracting the disease,” said an official.