Polio surveillance staff to be utilized for synergistic surveillance of coronavirus

ISLAMABAD, Mar 02 (APP):The federal government has decided to get support of polio surveillance staff in order to support the ongoing efforts to mitigate the risk associated with Coronavirus (COVID-19) and for synergistic surveillance of the disease.

According to an official of the Ministry of National Health Services, a letter in this regard has been written by National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC) and shared with all provincial heads of Polio Emergency Operation Centers (EOC) including Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and federal capital for utilization of the Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) staff to have check on Coronavirus without compromising Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) surveillance.

He said the decision was made keeping in view the appearance of cases in neighbouring countries and the risk of disease importation to Pakistan.

He added the Ministry of National Health Services in coordination with different stakeholders including provincial health departments is closely monitoring the situation.

The official said coordination mechanisms with dedicated focal persons have also been activated and the polio surveillance staff is envisaged to conduct activities in support of the preparedness and response system for COVID-19.

He said there will be training of staff concerned at provincial capitals on coronavirus, disease case definitions and surveillance and basics of contact tracing and case management by NEOC surveillance team.

He said the trained PEI surveillance staff will trickle down this expertise at district levels through orientation sessions and interactions with health care providers and support government focal points to establish a functional coronavirus sentinel surveillance system in designated hospitals including government and private teaching hospitals at district headquarters (DHQs).

He said the teams will conduct ad-hoc case search of cases on a weekly basis as part of active surveillance to support government focal points in teaching hospitals, DHQs and private teaching hospitals only as sentinel case-based surveillance.

The official said there will be inclusion of an extra line on weekly zero report form for Coronavirus as part of passive surveillance from government staff designated at zero sites.

He said any case identified through such activities will be shared to government focal points identified by National Institute of Health (NIH) for further case management, contact tracing and response.