KP Minister for Health & Finance Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra has said that polio eradication is a matter of national pride and remains the top priority of the government and urged all the line departments to work as a team to achieve the goal of polio-free status. He was chairing a district review meeting on polio eradication at Emergency Operations Center Khyber Pakhtunkhwa here on Friday.
Also present on the occasion were Secretary Health KP, Syed Imtiaz Hussain Shah, Coordinator EOC Abdul Basit, Special Secretary Health Mian Adil Iqbal, DG Health Services Dr Niaz Muhammad, Director EPI Dr Saleem, District Health Officers and representatives of UNICEF, and WHO.
Read more: Government sounds alarm after two new cases of Polio emerge in Punjab
Elaborating his thoughts, Minister for Health and Finance said that polio is affecting our children and leaving them disabled for life and emphasized the need for eradication of the disease that has been wiped out from the globe including African countries with much poor socio-economic indicators.
Taimur Jhagra directed District Health Officers (DHOs) to fill the gaps that were creating hurdles in polio eradication in their respective districts and to act against the complacent elements who are misreporting.
The IMB report on polio eradication states that it is "concerned about the scaling down of the Community Based Volunteer programme in Pakistan."
The govt recently sacked 13,000 anti-polio workers: 11,000 from Sindh and over 2,000 from KPhttps://t.co/IvCtUCSBKV
— Benazir Shah (@Benazir_Shah) August 31, 2020
“I am the strong advocate for recognizing the efforts of hard –working teams and officials and will urge all of you to commend the good team members as a motivating factor”, he added.
He said that health has emerged as one of the most significant sectors due to COVID 19 pandemic and directed DHOs to ensure quality health services to the people in their respective districts.
Secretary Health KP, Syed Imtiaz Hussan Shah emphasized the need for wiping out the menace of polio from the region and underscored the need for dedicated efforts at all levels. He said that as we as a nation is standing alone in the globe fraternity due to our inability to eradicate polio from our country.
Read more: “West’s Anti-Vaxxers” and Pakistan’s “Anti-Polio Mullahs”?
Earlier, EOC Coordinator Abdul Basit briefed Minister and the forum about the preparations of the upcoming campaign in the province and district wise challenges In the August campaign. It is noteworthy that the August campaign was conducted in 21 districts of the province with the target of 4.56 million children under five year’s age.
Online Int’l News with additional input by GVS News Desk