Punjab Polio: Vaccinator blows whistle on Punjab’s polio drive

A polio vaccinator of the Punjab Health Department has spilled the beans on severe irregularities observed during the vaccination campaign during January in the provincial metropolitan and has moved the Lahore High Court, Pakistan Today has learnt. Per details, Suleman Khan, a vaccinator working for the City District Government has maintained in his petition that the health authorities showed complete disregard for the incidents in which people refused to get their children vaccinated against polio. He further alleged that despite bringing this to the notice of the district health authorities several times, no official took any action to handle the situation. Instead, he alleged that the Lahore health EDO suspended him in complete violation of rules just because he had raised his voice against the ongoing irregularities. Khan has maintained that to achieve 100 percent results for Oral Polio Vaccine, it was necessary that the vaccine had to be distributed at union council level at stage-0. Every vaccine comes with a Vaccine Vial Monitor (VVM) which changes colour on the vaccine’s exposure to heat and goes from stage-0 to stage-3 to indicate when the vaccine becomes unusable. Khan has alleged that the vaccines are normally distributed when they are at stage-2 and the UCs do not have any facility to store the vaccines which means they move on to stage-3 quickly, rendering them useless. The vaccinator further submitted that the staff provided for vaccination was not professional but consisted of peons and watchmen, further alleging that the “government representatives received the empty vouchers of expenses from the vaccinators with their signatures without even paying a single penny.” Khan also highlighted that the World Health Organisation had been appreciating the role of Indian government in eradicating polio while Pakistan received billions of dollars in funds in this regard also. “It seems that the government, staff of UNICEF and the WHO were not working for eradication of polio seriously and are only trying to grab international funds,” he said, adding that it was just a campaign of huge salaries and other facilities. He further highlighted the government’s inefficiency by pointing out that the first polio case surfaced in the provincial metropolitan at the start of the year. Lahore Health EDO Dr Inamul Haq said the matter is in the court and a detailed reply had already been submitted. He further said the quality and efficacy of OPV was beyond any doubt per WHO criterion. He said Suleman Khan had made an “irresponsible” statement and had damaged the cause of polio eradication.