October 11, 2008	Saturday	Shawwal 11, 1429

KARACHI, Oct 10: Sindh Governor Sindh Dr Ishratul Ibad reviewed progress of the People’s Health Care Initiative (PHCI) at a meeting held at the Governor’s House on Friday.

Sindh Minister for Health Dr Sagheer Ahmed, Principal Secretary to the Governor Mumtaz-ur-Rehman and the officials associated with the PHCI and health department attended the meeting.

Dr Ibad said that rural and basic healthcare units should be made efficient so that the poor could get better health facilities. He issued directives that medical facilities be made available to the masses at all government-run health facilities in the province.

The governor was given a briefing about the PHCI. He asked the officials concerned to ensure presence of doctors and other staff besides making medicines and vaccines available at the relevant hospitals.

Anti-polio strategy

Separately, Dr Saghir Ahmed presided over a special meeting in his office to review the anti-polio drive being launched on Oct 13.

Dr Ahmed said that a comprehensive strategy was being devised to ensure that every child up to five years of age was administered anti-polio drive during the three-day campaign.

He expressed concern over the new polio cases detected recently, and said that it was a matter of great concern for all four provinces.

Appreciating donor agencies for their cooperation in the eradication of polio from Pakistan, the minister said that the health department, with the assistance of these agencies, was taking all possible measures to eradicate polio. “Cooperation of the masses is very important in this regard because the government alone cannot deal with the situation,” he said.

He urged community leaders, ulema and their media to play their due role in convincing the masses that administering anti-polio drops to every child below the age of five was very necessary and parents must not resist it.

—PPI