March 06, 2007	Tuesday	Safar 16, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, March 5: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has asked the health ministry to take all-out measures for making Pakistan a polio free country in the shortest possible time.

Presiding over a meeting on the eradication of polio initiative launched by the health ministry at the Prime Minister’s House on Monday, Mr Aziz said that it was gratifying that the number of polio cases had dropped drastically in the country, said a press release.

He said that support of Ulema and prayer leaders should also be sought to convince people for getting their children immunised.

The prime minister said the health ministry should launch awareness campaigns keeping in view the local dynamics of the high-risk areas, particularly tribal areas.

He said radio could be used as an effective tool because of its wide coverage.

Federal Health Minister Naseer Khan told the prime minister that more than 95 per cent of the children in the country have been administered polio vaccines, while 85 per cent of the districts were polio free.

Health Secretary Syed Anwar Mahmood said that the health ministry was using the most effective vaccines which had considerably reduced the transmission of the virus in large areas.

Earlier, in his presentation, the national programme manager of the EPI told the meeting that Pakistan was one of the three countries in the world where polio still existed, but added that the country was closer to eradicating it.