ISLAMABAD, Dec 18: The Japanese government on Thursday signed an agreement with Unicef to provide an assistance worth $10 million for Pakistan’s polio-eradication campaign during the year 2004.

The agreement was signed between Japanese ambassador Minoru Shibuya and Unicef representative Omar Ahmed Abdi in the presence of health secretary Ejaz Rahim here at a local hotel.

The fund will enable Unicef to procure about 93 million doses of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), which is 42 per cent of the total requirement in next year’s five NIDs and two sub-NIDs in the high risk areas.

The Japanese government has already contributed $48.51 million since 1996 for the eradication of polio in Pakistan. During the upcoming NIDs, some 32 million children under the age of five will be reached.

The country’s total OPV requirement for 2004 is estimated to be 220 million doses to be administered to more than 32 million children under the age of five.

The health secretary, speaking on the occasion, said the biodiversity of the wild polivirus during the recent high season had been reduced to one thirds in Pakistan. It means that this menace will be completely eradicated from the country soon, he added.

He said Japan was a close partner in the country’s health sector. Citing examples of Japanese cooperation, he mentioned establishment of children’s hospital and then its rehabilitation with a grant of Rs719 million, and setting up of College of Nursing and the Mother and Child Health in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.

It was only due to the Japanese assistance that it became possible for 75 per cent mothers to have access to maternal neonatal tetanus.

The Japanese envoy, speaking on the occasion, recalled that in 1993, there were 1,803 confirmed polio cases and “with our joint efforts, the number of confirmed polio cases has declined sharply to 92 in 2003”.

He was confident that Pakistan would achieve the target of interrupting the transmission of polio by 2005 to support the resolve of World Health Assembly. It will help achieve global polio free certification by 2007.

It is also conducive to a Millennium Development Goal to minimize infant mortality and enhance child immunization services, he said.

To make global polio campaign successful, it is necessary that polio eradication activities in Pakistan during the next year be efficient, using all possible resources to reach the very last child with polio vaccine, Mr Shibuya said.

In line with ongoing support for polio eradication and neonatal tetanus control, Japan intended to continue its assistance to extended programme of immunization and tuberculosis control through provision of technical support, vaccines and other medicines. In-country training programme on newborn’s care and safe motherhood will be further promoted, he said.

He also announced that Japan government would fund $25.5 million for substantial improvement in the health sector of Pakistan.

The Unicef representative said the polio immunization campaign had seen a tactical shift in Pakistan, but “we need to maintain our support and vigilance more than ever before to realize the objectives like interrupting transmission by the end of 2005”.

It will be helpful in implementation of the polio ‘endgame’ programme of work, including containment of wild polivirus, global polio-free certification and the development of a post- eradication immunization policy, he said. It will also contribute to health systems’ development by strengthening routine immunization and surveillance for communicable diseases.