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LAHORE: In the face of serious security threats and escalating attacks on polio workers in different parts of the country, the federal government has suspended the anti-polio campaign "for an indefinite period."
And for the first time in the history of Pakistan, the government also suspended the post-campaign evaluation – Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS).
The National Emergency Operations Center for Polio, Islamabad, issued a red alert to all provinces on Friday, urging them to stop the anti-polio campaign across the country in order to protect 270,000 police officers. field of polio attacks.
The national campaign was launched in all districts of the country on April 22 and Friday was the last day of catching up.
The post-campaign evaluation was also postponed as a large number of children were missed during the collection which ended on Friday.
"After the Peshawar incident, the uncertain and threatening situation for frontline polio workers has appeared and we need to preserve the agenda of a major new disaster," reads in the statement. alert issued by the EOC.
The national technical team and partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (PIPI) unanimously decided to immediately cancel the catch-up activities of the April National Immunization Day campaign Across the country.
"Therefore, no other immunization or catch-up activity will be conducted in this region for this campaign," said the NEC in its letter.
One official said that the World Health Organization was using the LQAS as a new method of sampling under the IMEP to document the status of polio coverage and areas. low coverage with statistical reliability.
He said the national polio program had suffered a major setback due to frequent attacks on polio teams in different parts of the country, which had led the federal government to suspend its activities. .
He added that this action had taken place as a result of the Peshawar incident in which a violent mob had burned down a government medical facility and murdered a polio worker in Shaman, not to mention the attacks on the staff of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab in recent days.
In a separate official letter to all provinces, the WCC expressed concern over the escalating attacks on polio workers, calling on them to suspend their LQAS activities.
The letter reads as follows: "The national EOC has decided not to conduct any post-campaign evaluation (LQAS) in the country".
The official said the NUC had acted out of fear of a pathetic vaccine coverage of 40 million targeted children across the country because of security threats and attacks against workers in the country. polio.
In Punjab alone, he said, it is for the first time that 700,000 children have been forgotten or that their families have refused to vaccinate their children, thus putting the life of too much. children at risk of contracting the disabling illness during the last four days of the month. reader who started on April 22nd.
The status of so many unvaccinated children is likely to hinder Pakistan as the Global Knowledge Protection Initiative (GPEI) Technical Advisory Group is due to visit the country in the coming weeks.
Posted in Dawn, April 27, 2019
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