As Pakistan continue to plunge deeper into the quagmire of polio, efforts to eradicate the polio from Pakistan suffered another setback on Wednesday when a national vaccination campaign scheduled to start from Thursday (today) was postponed in three districts of Karachi because the police department were unable to provide enough cops for the security of vaccinators. The police’s refusal to provide security for the campaign compelled international health agencies and consultants to put it off. “The Sindh IGP had assured us that 3,000 policemen would be provided for the vaccination drive. But a day before the drive is scheduled to start, the police department told us that it can’t provide more than 1,300 policemen, compelling us to postpone the campaign,” Sindh Emergency Operations Centre coordinator Dr Usman Chachar told Media. The fact remains that there are 5,000 children, aged less than five years, that have never been administered polio drops in Sindh, and a huge amount of political will is required to combat this crippling disease. Karachi has not reported any polio case since October 2014, and to maintain this achievement, children need to be administered the vaccine in a timely manner. While 75 per cent reduction was recorded during the eight months of this year, the country still shared over 90pc of the polio cases recorded worldwide. More than 200,000 motivated frontline health workers had been selected from communities and trained to ensure every child was reached and every parent could trust vaccinators to protect their children from polio. When individuals are putting in effort and risking their lives to battle the disease, the least the police and the provincial government can do is ensure the safety of these brave individuals. The Sindh Emergency Operation Centre for Polio has played a significant role in the planning, coordination and monitoring of polio-related activities and their effort is much appreciated, but without political will, the fight against polio will be a lost cause.
pk.shafaqna.com
