[Dawn] While a five-day mop-up polio...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
vaccination campaign ended on Friday in Bin Qasim Town without any violent incident, the drive exposed gaps in government strategy and raised serious questions over its commitment and success of an immunisation drive scheduled to begin shortly across the country.
Contrary to what the government had claimed in official meetings, delayed arrival of vaccine at targeted areas and inadequate security hampered the efforts on the first and second day of the door-to-door campaign, sources said, adding that no security was provided to vaccinators on the concluding day.
At least two vaccinators complained of having been threatened during the five-day drive.
"One of the vaccinators was threatened on her way back home whereas the other was administering polio drops to a child at a home when her uncle, who had accompanied her in the absence of official security, saw an armed person and alarmed her. They had to flee from the spot. The incident took place on Road No 6 in Cattle Colony," said a town health official while speaking to Dawn.
A number of polio teams, he said, had to be on their own during the initial days due to inadequate police personnel providing security to the teams.
However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate...
according to the staff, delayed delivery of the vaccine was a major setback.
The vaccine, which was supposed to be delivered to vaccinators before 8am, was brought at noon, sapping their vigour, said a team member. "There was no arrangement for any refreshment either."
The staffer was of the opinion that lack of coordination between the EPI (Extended Programme for Immunisation) cell of the government and World Health Organisation staff was responsible for the delay in vaccine delivery.
Referring to the government meetings held before the start of the mop-up campaign in the town, he said that a number of promises were made in the meetings but little was delivered.
"I can't ask a volunteer to risk her life for Rs250," said another town health staffer while sharing his grievances.
It is noteworthy that the mop-up campaign in Bin Qasim Town after a two-year-old resident of Cattle Colony, Musharraf, was diagnosed with polio virus -- this year's first case in the country.
The campaign was run in five union councils (namely UC 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7) during which more than 6,000 children were vaccinated against the virus, while more than 50 families refused to get their children vaccinated during the first three days.
Top officials, including the Sindh EPI director and the executive director health, were not available for comments on the issue. Also representatives of non-governmental organizations, including those of the WHO, did not attend phone calls.