KARACHI, Oct 21: Following the latest reporting of six new polio cases in Sindh, including two in Karachi, provincial health authorities on Friday set a target of 100 per cent coverage to be verified by finger marking in every campaign in highrisk union councils across the province.

Sources in the health department told Dawn that Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmad specially called a pollo review meeting on Friday and expressed his resentment over the continuing detection of poliovirus victims in recent weeks.

Representatives of the Worth Health Organisation, the Sindh health secretary, the director of the expanded programme on immunization, the Karachi health EDO, senior officials from Karachi and the interior of Sindh attended the meeting.

According to a spokesman for the government, the minister ordered suspension of the taluka health officer of Qambar city and issuance of a show-cause notice to the Qambar-Shahdadkot health EDO and recommended transfer of the Thatta health EDO.

Both Qambar and Thatta had reported two polio cases each on Thursday. Thatta is the second with a total of six confirmed polio cases after Karachi, with a maximum eight cases, so far this year.

Karachi`s figure is the highest after 2001 when it had reported seven polio cases. Last year, the city with about 2.34 million children below the age of five years deserving the oral polio drops, had three polio cases reported from Gulshan, SITE and Korangi towns.

Some of the latest victims of the dreaded virus in the province had not been given any OPV doses under the routine immunization schedule while some others had never been given a supplementary OPV dose at any stage. Under the routine immunisation, a child is required to be given OPV doses four times up to the age of 14 weeks.

According to one health manager, there are 61 highrisk UCs in Karachi`s 18 towns eight in Baldia, six in Saddar, five each in Gulshan and North Nazimabad, four each in Bin Qasim, Gadap, North Karachi and SITE, three each in Jamshed and Liaquatabad, two each in Gulberg, Keamari, Korangi, Landhi, Lyari, Malir and Shah Faisal and one union council in Orangi.

It was noted during the meeting that commitment at the district level for polio eradication was not matching with the commitment at the national and provincial level.

There was a performance gap in some high-risk areas of Sindh, mostly due to a lack of accountability, said a senior official.

Another official stressed the need for close monitoring of the implementation of specific plans, developed with emphasis on locally appropriate strategies, for high-risk union councils.

This appeared to be the reason why the meeting resolved to increase the targeted coverage rate to 100 per cent in the UCs in question from the 95 per cent that was previously considered reasonable, it was learnt.

The chair also noted the absence of the administrator and the DCO of Karachi and the Thatta health EDO, and decided to call another meeting to discuss the matters pertaining to Karachi after threeday polio campaign starting on Oct 24.

Talking briefly to Dawn, the national coordinator of the Prime Minister`s Cell on Polio Eradication, Dr Altaf Bosan, described the new polio cases as `the worst situation`, and stressed the need for accountability at the district level.