The Deputy Commissioner (DC) office Vehari has developed and tested an e-polio smartphone app to monitor the vaccination campaign and record data of vaccinated and missed children during the campaign.

The e-polio app is the initiative of the Vehari administration, developed by Tauqeer Ikram with the help of experts in the field of technology, health and education. It took less than two weeks and minimum cost to research and to implement the project.

DC Vehari Waqas Rasheed said that during the anti-polio campaign, health workers go door-to-door for coverage and mark walls of the houses manually, do finger markings and take notes to keep track of the vaccination status. We come up with a smart solution. “The solution is simple, cheap and digital. All we need is smartphones and an app to keep track of the reliable information,” he added.

He further said that we have launched the e-polio pilot project in Danewal, one urban union council (UC) of the district to ensure accurate implementation during the first polio campaign of 2020. We deputed 60 polio workers, who recorded names of all family members, ages of the children, home addresses and contacts, he maintained.

Waqas Rasheed said, “The database would help the polio workers and health ministry to accurately record and administer immunization campaigns, making it easy to follow up on the missed children.”

The smartphone app using GIS mapping technology makes it convenient to register and identify households. The technological surveillance approach allows quick, accurate, and up-to-date data monitoring to ensure 100 per cent coverage.

The DC Vehari said that the data of 3,811 households and 6,214 children under the age of five have been recorded in the android app so far, Nearly 5,610 children received polio vaccine during the current campaign in the union council, he added.

The e-polio team has also joined hands with schools to ensure no child is missed. Previously, the children at school or those travelling would usually miss the vaccine. And that one missed child puts the whole community at risk. This is why we are involving schools to ensure no child is left behind.