IRCD.net.pk

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani launched the first three-day nationwide polio immunisation campaign of the year 2010 at the PM House here on Monday. The campaign will reach 31 million children under the age of five with anti-polio drops; 87,000 teams have been constituted for the purpose.

“There is highest level of commitment to the cause of polio eradication in Pakistan. I am personally monitoring the drive to ensure that health officials perform to the optimal level and miss no child during any campaign,” the PM said in his address at the launching ceremony.

“Since February 2008, when the Prime Minister’s Action Plan on Polio was launched, there has been tangible progress in the anti-polio drive with the involvement of sectors beyond health,” the PM stated, referring to the engagement of organisations like Nadra, National Highways and Motorways Police, Traffic Police, Pakistan Post, media organisations and most recently the telecom sector. “In the current round, the country’s largest mobile phone operator is helping us track and reach missed children. Now parents can send a text message reporting missed areas for children to the National Polio Control Cell and an anti-polio team will be dispatched to their homes within an hour,” he remarked.

Flanked by Minister for Health Makhdoom Shahabuddin and other stalwarts working in the health sector, the PM administered anti-polio drops to a few children.

Pakistan has reported five cases of polio so far this year. Of these, two are in Bajaur Agency, and one each from Quetta, Karachi and Peshawar. The country closed 2009 with 89 cases, of which 49 were from NWFP/Fata, their majority from security risk areas. The anti-polio campaign has resumed in Swat after three years and campaigns are now being held in areas cleared by security forces.

Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan have been polio-free for 8 and 10 years, respectively. Global experts have highlighted the possibility of success, if remaining management issues are overcome and the district leadership is held accountable when it comes to the achievement of immunisation targets.

Four nationwide campaigns and four special campaigns in high-risk areas will be conducted in 2010 alongside establishment of polio task forces under the leadership of the Chief Secretaries to promote accountability at the district level. The programme shall continue to develop contingency plans in insecure and security-compromised areas of the country.
Source: http://thenews.jang.com.pk/print1.asp?id=224418

Filed under: News from Pakistan on February 17th, 2010