LAHORE: Punjab Emergency Operations Centre Coordinator and head of the polio programme in Punjab Khizer Afzaal says he is dismayed over substandard microplans, cautioning districts that leaving out populations in microplans may impact Punjab’s polio-free status negatively.

At a review meeting on Monday, he criticised the “non-seriousness” of some districts towards the development of quality microplans.

District health authority heads of 10 districts where a special polio campaign was held recently attended the meeting via video link.

“Deputy district health officers are responsible for ensuring that all micro-plans in their respective union councils are up to date. Below-quality micro-plans are indicative of the fact that polio teams are prospectively missing some populations which run the risk of allowing the polio virus free space,” the EOC coordinator said.

He directed the chief executive officers to act against the relevant officers if micro-plans are frequently found to be of low standards. He suggested the districts analyse all polio campaign data at a granular level and remove all discrepancies.

The EOC coordinator directed the EOC officials to take deputy commissioners on board regarding the districts’ performance in the recently concluded campaign. He noted districts’ inability to understand the challenges in the program and suggested capacity building of the district officials urgently.

Mr Afzaal deputed the training team of the EOC to arrange training for district officials on household data of children, missed children coverage, and development of quality micro-plans. He directed the EOC officials to work on the prospective dates of trainings and share a report in this regard with him urgently.

He said that districts needed to show more commitment towards the polio campaigns, take lethargic officials to task, and start preparations for the new campaign starting in June.

Punjab wrapped up the special polio campaign in 10 high-risk districts on Sunday last week. The districts included in the sub-national polio campaign were divided into two categories. Bigger districts included Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Faisalabad. While smaller districts included Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rahim Yar Khan, Rajanpur, Okara, Sheikhupura, and Mianwali. Over 67,000 polio workers participated in the campaign, including 60,000 mobile team members.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2024