LAHORE – Punjab Emergency Operations Centre Coordinator and head of the polio programme in Punjab Mr Khizer Afzaal has emphasized on high-quality preparations for the upcoming polio National Immunization Drive which will be rolled out in three weeks time from October 21 all over the province. He was presiding over a high-level meeting on Tuesday to set tone for national polio campaign preparations with district health management teams of 36 districts who participated via video link. Addressing the participants the EOC coordinator dilated upon challenges facing the province, noting that this will be the third polio national immunization drive, which could be a game changer amid intense polio virus circulation all over the country. “The third national campaign of the year is just three weeks away. Campaign preparations should begin right away. As evident, intense polio virus circulation is going on in the country. Out of 245 samples taken this year, 36 have tested positive showing 16 per cent positivity ratio. So, this will be an important campaign to break polio virus circulation”, underscored the EOC coordinator. He expressed his concerns about mega cities including Lahore and Rawalpindi, calling upon the district teams to ensure that data of missed children from the last campaign is updated and available. The EOC head directed the district officials to ensure that all children missed in the last polio campaign are vaccinated in the upcoming national campaign. He emphasized on the districts to improve polio team training standards, stressing upon officials to lead training implementation themselves. He issued a warning that if anyone was found to have skipped the training, strict disciplinary action will be taken against them. Giving instructions, the EOC coordinator stressed that Chief Executive Officers will need to look into the teams’ composition and maximum number of government accountable persons needed to be made part of polio teams. Any team member with continuous suboptimal performance needed to be excluded from the campaign, Mr Afzaal underlined. He instructed district officials to take ownership of microplans, saying the CEO will be responsible for his district microplans. 100 percent of microplans need to be desk validated by the Deputy District Health Officer, instructed the EOC head. He disclosed that from this campaign the scope of microplan quality assessment will be increased so that every house, hamlet and child receives vaccination. He underscored that districts needed to learn from their mistakes and recurrence of mistakes like repeated missed houses should not go unpunished. The EOC coordinator put onus of increased efficiency of polio teams on the Deputy District Health Officers, saying the DDHO needed to take ownership and lead the campaign every day right from the morning assembly till evening. He directed officials to begin work on revision of coverage targets and registration of migrant and mobile population registration urgently. Mr Afzaal urged the district officials to ensure that local administration, political leaders and key influencers are engaged in the campaign inaugurations. He reiterated that department and government were committed to eradicate polio and it was evident from ownership of the programme by top leadership including Chief Minister Punjab Ms Mariam Nawaz Sharif.
