RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has reiterated his resolve to eradicate polio and measles from the province of Sindh by intensifying vaccination campaigns and launching awareness drives.

He expressed his views on said diseases, presiding over a meeting of provincial taskforce for polio eradication at the CM House. Those who attended the meeting were: Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Ali Shah, Principal Secretary to the CM Sajid Jamal Abro, provincial secretaries of local government and health departments, Commissioner Karachi Sauleh Farooqui, Addl IGP Karachi Dr Ameer Shaikh, WHO Team Leader Dr Abdi Rehman, Unicef team leader Lieven Desomer, BMGF Team Leader Dr Altaf Bosan, Rotary International Chair Aziz Memon, all divisional commissioners of the province and deputy commissioners of Karachi and others concerned.

Briefing the chief minister provincial Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) Coordinator Fayaz Jatoi said that in 2018 to this date no polio case has reported in Sindh as compared to last year when two cases were reported and both were from Karachi, Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Gadap.

The chief minister was told that sampled were gathered of virus isolated from environmental sites, taken from sewage system, indicating on-going virus transmission. In Karachi, samples are taken from 11 sites every month. In September, Sohrab Goth, Gadap, Chakora Nalla- Gulshan, Mohamamd Khan Colony-Baldia, Orangi Nala- SITE came positive while in rural areas of Sindh samples taken from six sites where Jacobabad came positive.

To a question, the chief minister was told that the number of missed children due to refusals and non-availability of children at home in September anti-polio drive was recorded at 215,463, including 96906 not available and 118,557 refused.

In rural areas of the province, the number of unavailable and refusing children was 94,875 in September and of them 88464 not available and 6411 refusal cases.

Chief Minister said that frequent positive environmental samples in Jacobabad and Kambar, was not a good sign. The reasons may be seasonal population movement to and from Karachi and Quetta and drought-hit population’s displacement from Tharparkar and Umerkot to other parts of the province. Therefore, he directed the Taskforce to devise the strategy to control the situation accordingly.

Murad Shah said that the DCs leadership was required more now than ever before because they are present in the field. “I want you [DCs] to control increasing community resistance to the polio vaccination

The chief minister directed Dr Azra Pechuho to improve the performance of the district and taluka Health Officers in some districts such as Malir, Karachi West, Central, Jacobabad, Kambar, Sujawal and Matiari where frequent positive environmental samples were found. He also expressed his displeasure on inadequate support form directorate of private schools and directed education department to talk to them to cooperate with polio teams in administering polio vaccines to their schoolchildren, otherwise take strict action against them.

Measles Cases: The meeting was told that the measles cases have shown an increase during last four years. In 2015, 1175 measles suspected cases were reported, of them 281 were found confirmed and eight patients had died. In 2016, out of 3421 suspected cases, 1729 were found confirmed, of them 19 died. In 2017, 5779 suspected cases were tested, of them 3086 found confirmed and 35 died and in 2018 suspected cases increased to 7778, of them 788 have been confirmed and 122 died.

The chief minister said situation is quite alarming and there should be a thorough probe into causes of measles outbreak. He urged the health department must do its investigative work and simultaneously the vigorous and focused campaign for measles vaccination be launched.

He called for improving health indicators by taking multi-sectorial interventions. He said that necessary improvements may be made in nutrition, provision of clean drinking water, waste management and to educate people about health issues.

Murad Shah said he was trying his best to make Sindh healthy, wealthy and cleaner Sindh and for the purpose he urged everyone within the government and in civil society to support him to achieve the goals.