HYDERABAD: WHO sees polio-free Pakistan by year end
Bureau Report
HYDERABAD, April 10: Pakistan is likely to achieve the status of a polio-free country by the end of this year, representative of the World Health Organization Dr Azmoudeh said.
He was speaking at a meeting of the district polio eradication committee here on Wednesday.
Expressing the hope that the incidence of polio cases would be reduced to zero-level by end-2003, the WHO representative said that 98 polio cases had been reported in 2002 but this year only 30 cases had so far been reported.
Stressing the need for focussed efforts for eliminating the disease in the province and the country, Dr Azmoudeh said that the last polio case had been reported in Hyderabad in January 2002 but the problem would remain if the anti-polio campaign did not continue.
He also praised the efforts of the district government and the health department in this regard.
Earlier, the EDO (health), Dr Ashraf Bhurgari told the meeting that as many as 668,320 children under five years of age would be immunised during the polio eradication campaign, beginning from April 15 and lasting till April 17 in the Hyderabad district.
The meeting, which was presided over by chairman of the committee district Nazim Dr Makhdoom Rafiquzzaman, was also informed that 328,992 children from urban area, 229,593 children from rural area and 109,735 children belonging to remote areas have been selected to be inoculated during the campaign.
He said that in addition to 203 teams to be made available at medical centres, 1,386 mobile medical teams would be engaged to achieve the immunisation target.
Dr Bhurgari said that 164 area incharges, nine taluka and 34 zonal supervisors had been assigned to monitor the teams engaged in the anti-polio campaign.
Dr Bhurgari said that Hyderabad had been one of the most infected areas in the past but now it had been declared a polio- free district.
Speaking on the occasion, district Nazim Dr Makhdoom Rafiquzzaman urged doctors in the district and the public representatives to play their role for creating public awareness to make the anti-polio campaign successful and to accelerate the EPI activities in the district.
He also appointed a district monitoring committee, headed by the EDO (health), to monitor the health services in the district, identify bottlenecks and prepare a strategy to make health programme more successful.
Dr Domicina from the WHO, EDO (revenue) Shakeel Hyder Naqvi, EDO (community development) Mohammad Ibrahim Qureshi, SP City Sharjeel Kharal, representatives of the Pakistan Medical Association, Rotary Club and other NGOs also attended the meeting.
