Pakistani TV stations send message about polio

 

 

Television stations in Pakistan are helping to monitor immunization days so children, like this baby in Peshawar, receive the polio vaccine. Photo by Jean-Marc Giboux/WHO

Rotarians working to eradicate polio in Pakistan have a new partner in the fight: the media. State-run and private television stations and a cell phone company are part of a network helping to monitor and promote immunization campaigns.

During the country’s National Immunization Days (NIDs) 16-18 March, seven television stations participated in a “Polio Control Cell” based at the Pakistan Television Centre in Islamabad. The stations promoted a toll-free number that listeners throughout the country could call to report any areas that health workers had missed.

“All the calls were responded to immediately by a team of volunteers, who contacted authorities to dispatch vaccinators to the missed areas,” says Shakil Hasan Ansari, a member of the Southeast Asia Regional PolioPlus Committee and past governor of District 3270. The TV stations also ran a ticker across the screen, highlighting calls received from parents whose children hadn’t been immunized, followed by notices of the actions taken in response. Rotarians and Rotaractors have continued to support the effort by taking part in NIDs and immunizing children who have not been reached by health department teams, Ansari says.

During the March NIDs, 14,427 calls were received, enabling teams to immunize 22,300 children who might otherwise have been missed, Ansari says. As part of the effort, the National Database and Registration Authority dispatched more than 100 vans to vaccinate children in less accessible areas of the country.

During a visit to the Polio Control Cell, Pakistan’s health minister, Mir Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani, said the media can serve as an independent monitor in the country’s fight against the disease. “Reaching every child up to five years of age is a task which can only be accomplished with the collaboration of all stakeholders,” he said.

One of Pakistan’s largest cell phone companies also joined the effort. Before Subnational Immunization Days took place 13-15 April, Mobilink sent out millions of text messages to parents in areas at high risk for poliovirus circulation, encouraging them to have their children vaccinated. Such innovative tactics are needed, health officials say, to ensure that as many children as possible are immunized throughout the country.