LAHORE: The World Polio Day went largely ‘unnoticed’ in the country as no major ceremony was organised at the public or private level in the provincial capital.

The Punjab government recognised the importance of the day just by issuing a statement by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Neither the Punjab Directorate of Health Services nor the medical institutions organised any major programme to sensitise the public about polio which is spreading with the passage of time.

Lahore is considered a polio transmission zone since a report issued by the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, has confirmed generic link of a Farooqabad polio case to the provincial capital.

However, religious scholars from various schools of thought attended a walk outside the press c lub here on Friday to mark the polio day.

Led by Maulana Asim Makhdoom, the walk was arranged by the International Research Council for Religious Affairs. Allama Asadullah Farooq, Allama Younas Hasan, Aslam Siddiqui and Maulan Shoebur Rehman were among the prominent participants.

dental conference: The first annual conference of the Pakistan Association for Dental Research (PADR) will start here at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Saturday (today).

On Friday, there were three pre-conference workshops. Workshop on ‘Advance biostatistics, scientific writing and research methodology’ was facilitated by Dr Sobia Bilal, Prof Amanullah Khan and Dr Farhan Raza Khan; workshop on ‘Style Italiano technique’ was facilitated by Dr Arshad Hasan from Dow Dental College and Dr Salman Ashraf of the University of Lahore; and the third workshop on ‘Orthodontic treatment management’ was facilitated by Dr Saad Asad of the University of Lahore, Dr Zubair of Nishtar Institute of Dentistry and Dr Fariha Bukhari of the University of Lahore.

The two-conference is being organised by the UHS Oral Biology Department in collaboration with the Pakistan Association of Orthodontists, Pakistan Dental Association and COMSATS.

The theme of the conference is “Translating research evidence into dental practice”.

Punjab University Vice-Chancellor Prof Mujahid Kamran will inaugurate the conference. Over 500 scholars, researchers and dentists from the USA, the UK, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will participate in the conference.

Guest speakers include Dr Syed Ali Khurrum, a clinician based at the University of Sheffield, UK, Dr Kashif Hafeez from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Dr Sobia Bilal from the International Medical University, Malaysia, Dr Rabia Tassaduq of the New York University, USA, and Dr Amjad Wyne from King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2014