The district coordination officers were not playing their role, outlined in National Polio Emergency Plan by the prime minister, as a child was tested positive for poliomyelitis in Torghar district on Tuesday bringing number of polio cases in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
to six, sources said.
"Torghar is among the seven districts where district coordination officers are not cooperating in anti-polio campaign. The DCOs are supposed to play lead role in polio immunisation campaigns as announced by prime minister on January 16," said officials of health department.
According to them, health department wrote letters to the administrations of eight districts to revisit their plans before the June 13 campaigns and make them workable.
"All the districts were given one week time to redress their weaknesses. Only Swat
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
responded positively and the department gave go-ahead for the three-day campaign there," they added. The directives didn`t find receptive ears in seven districts, they said.
"Now the department wants result-oriented activities at union council level in all high-risk districts. Volunteers would stay on the teams but they would play second fiddle," they said.
According to the criteria, every team of vaccinators should have at least one government`s employee, who can be held responsible for any slackness. The officials said that in the past majority of the teams consisted of volunteers, who could not be questioned.
The formation of teams of vaccinators depended on the willingness of district administration, they said.
The matter had been reported to Islamabad as according to National Emergency Plan DCOs must play important part in formation of teams and other administrative support to ensure success of the drive.
The health department had to postponed polio campaign in seven districts, including Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Nowshera, Kohat, Karak, Shangla, Buner and Torghar on June 13 owing to lack of homework there.
"The preparatory arrangements were analysed and the department decided to postpone campaign in these districts," said an official of health department. Now campaigns have been scheduled for June 20 and health authorities in these districts have also been asked to keep in close contact with their respective district coordination officers.
They said that the province was exposed to virus because of the high transmission in Federally Administered Tribal Areas, which had recorded 18 cases this year, the highest in the total 50 cases recorded in the country.
A reporting and response system have been established in all districts to monitor and analyse situation and send report about the cooperation of DCOs to Prime Minister`s Secretariat.