KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Thursday expressed dismay over detection of poliovirus in fresh environmental samples from Karachi and three other districts of Sindh and asked the health ministry and district administrations to improve their overall efforts against the crippling disease or they would get the annual confidential reports (ACRs) that might not help them in their future career.

`I want you (health ministry/ district administrations) to make every anti-polio drive successful and work hard to make Sindh polio free,` said Mr Shah while presiding over a meeting of the provincial task force on polio atthe New Sindh Secretariat.

Briefing the chief minister about the current situation, coordinator of the emergency operation centre for polio, Fayyaz Jatoi, said 57 polio cases had been reported in Sindh since 2013. Ten cases, eight in Karachi and two elsewhere in Sindh, were reported in 2013, while the figure shot up to 30 in 2014 when Karachi accounted for 23 cases and the remaining seven were surfaced elsewhere. Twelve cases were documented last year, of which seven were reported from Karachi and five from other districts.

He said five cases had been reported so far from Sindh, of which one was reported from Karachi and four surfaced elsewhere, including two from Shikarpur, and one each fromthe New Sindh Secretariat.

Briefing the chief minister about the current situation, coordinator of the emergency operation centre for polio, Fayyaz Jatoi, said 57 polio cases had been reported in Sindh since 2013. Ten cases, eight in Karachi and two elsewhere in Sindh, were reported in 2013, while the figure shot up to 30 in 2014 when Karachi accounted for 23 cases and the remaining seven were surfaced elsewhere. Twelve cases were documented last year, of which seven were reported from Karachi and five from other districts.

He said five cases had been reported so far from Sindh, of which one was reported from Karachi and four surfaced elsewhere, including two from Shikarpur, and one each fromJacobabad and Sujawal.

Giving national figures this year, Mr Jatoi said Fata and Balochistan reported just one case each while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa declared five cases.

The chief minister was displeased with the situation as Sindh was far behind Fata, Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan in the past. He said he would take action if any officer was found negligent during polio campaign.

He asked the health minister to conduct inquiries in Shikarpur and Sujawal against district and town health officers, and district commissioners regarding their efficiency during polio drives in their respective districts and talukas and submit reports to him.He said the environmental samples collected from different areas revived the worries, which had subsided in the past months when they were found negative.

The report shared with him showed positive samples in Karachi`s Sohrab Goth, Machhar Colony, Khamiso Colony, Rashid Minhas Raod, and Kumharwara neighbourhoods. Similarly, positive samples were found in Sukkur, Hyderabad and Jacobabad districts.

The Independent Monitoring Board`s report shared with the chief minister was highly discouraging for everyone involved in the effort to eradicate polio fromKarachi.

The report said the polio programme in Karachi needed to embrace the practices of pragmatic excellence that had elimi-nated the poliovirus elsewhere.

It said the polio programme in many parts of the city had been chronically underperforming.

`Political leadership in the North Sindh area of Pakistan is not fully engaged and aligned with the urgency of the situation, as a result, many observers believe that this could be the last place in the world where the poliovirus exists,` said the international body monitoring the effort to eradicate the viral disease.

The chief minister, however, resolved that he would leave no stone unturned to let the things sliding down.

`I personally launched campaign in Ibrahim Hyderi last week,` he said, adding, he would not tolerate negligence vis-a-vis the campaign. He asked the chiefsecretary to include a column in the ACRs of the commissioners, deputy commissioners, and district health officers to determine if they were taking interest in polio campaigns in their jurisdictions.

The chief secretary was also ordered to review the stipend the government was paying to polio workers.

`We give Rs650 per person daily which is not enough. Pll make this amount double, but in future every campaign should show positive progress,` he said.

Divisional commissioners also briefed the chief minister about the progress of polio campaigns.

Health Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro, Senator Aysha Farooq, Sindh IGP, senior officials and representatives of the WHO and Unicef attended the meeting.