ISLAMABAD: Although over one year has passed, there is no clear indication when the travel restrictions imposed on Pakistanis on the recommendations of the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) for Polio will be removed.

A meeting of the IMB held in Britain on Tuesday again failed to bring any good news for Pakistan, although it was apprised of the country’s performance. The words ‘do more’ were pronounced again.

The IMB works on behalf of international donor agencies and issues reports on performance of countries after every six months.

In Nov 2012, the board recommended that travel restrictions be imposed on Pakistan and those were finally implemented on May 5 last year.

Words ‘do more’ pronounced again at IMB’s meeting on polio

According to a source privy to the meeting, IMB was of the opinion that some areas were developing as the last battle ground against poliovirus and it should be addressed by all partners with full force.

The meeting, chaired by IMB Chairman Sir Liam Donaldson, stressed the need for special focus on Karachi as positive environmental samples continue to emerge in the city as well as northern Sindh, where four cases were reported this year.

Besides Pakistan, delegations from Afghanistan, Nigeria and Ukraine briefed the meeting on the polio situation in their countries. Nigeria was congratulated on its exit from the list of polio endemic countries, but it has to maintain a polio-free status for two years to earn the certification.

The Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio, Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq, gave a presentation on the polio situation in Pakistan while the head of Emergency Operation Centre (EOC), Dr Rana Safdar, shared with the participants strategies worked out in this regard.

Ms Farooq said the number of polio cases in Pakistan had declined by 85 per cent and proportion of positive environmental samples from 34 to 19pc year-on-year. She cited statistics to demonstrate how new interventions, such as continuous community protected vaccination, health camps and inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) campaigns had helped the government in accessing more children.

She also presented results of September’s National Immunisation Day (NID) campaign under which almost three million missed children have been successfully covered.

The meeting was informed that North Waziristan, which was an epicentre of poliovirus, had been cleared by the Pakistan Army and polio campaigns suspended by the Taliban in June 2012 had resumed there.

National Health Services (NHS) Secretary Mohammad Ayub Shaikh dwelt on the government’s commitment to polio eradication. Right from the prime minister, minister for National Health Services, chief ministers, are all according top priority to ending poliovirus transmission, he said.

The IMB praised Pakistan’s performance, but called for taking further steps to eradicate the virus of the crippling disease.

Chairman of the Technical Advisory Group, Dr Jean Marc, appreciated the tremendous progress that the programme had been able to make since February when a decision was taken to make a paradigm shift from “covered to missed children”. In terms of remaining challenges, he made special mention of Peshawar-Khyber block linked to ongoing transmission across the border.

The IMB members as well as other participants held a discussion on continued transmission in Peshawar and stressed the need for focused and concerted efforts between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata as well as with Afghanistan.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2015

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