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Riaz A Malik, SoSec Consulting Services, 13, Street 32, F-7/1, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan, 9251 227 6226, riaz.malik@sosec.org and Tahir P Mir, Surveillance Cell, World Health Organization, National Institute of Health, Chak Shehzad, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan.
Pakistan is one of the three remaining poliovirus reservoirs in the world. Government of Pakistan (GoP) and polio eradication partners are putting all the efforts to reach Zero case by 2004, initially the global target was year 2000.
In Pakistan, National Immunization Days (NIDs) are celebrated since 1994 but the immunization coverage for target population i.e., children under 5, was never satisfactory, later strategy was modified to House-to-House visit by vaccination teams but situation remained the same. In January 2002 GoP with the assistance of WHO introduced the Post Campaign Independent Monitoring (PCIM) of the vaccination campaigns by the Third Party from the private sector.
A biased sampling technique is used for these evaluations. All high-risk districts based on the surveillance data in the country are included and within the district all Union Councils (smallest administrative unit) are monitored. Each UC is divided geographically into 4 sectors for monitoring. Within the sector, seven households with children less than 5 years of age are checked. Sample is calculated to achieve 95% confidence level.
PCIM has helped to increase the vaccination coverage from 85 % to 95 % in majority of the high-risk districts. PCIM is not only helping to improve the coverage during NIDs but has also become an important instrument of accountability for district health authorities.
Learning Objectives:
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.