LAHORE: International Polio Plus Committee chairman Michael K McGovern has said Punjab has made a great advancement in polio eradication and can play a leading role in making the country free of the disease.

In an important meeting of Rotary International’s delegation with provincial health authorities at the Emergency Operation Centre at the office of health director general on Thursday Mr McGovern appreciated the progress made by Punjab and urged it to share its best practices and experience with other provinces.

Chief minister’s advisor on health, Khawaja Salman Rafique, Health Secretary Jawwad Rafique Malik, Director General Dr Zahid Pervaiz, representatives of Unicef, WHO and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also attended the meeting.

The Punjab government representative informed the meeting that no polio case has been reported all over the province this year so far and this was rendered possible because of strict accountability mechanism.

The health secretary said Punjab faced a challenge of transmission from mobile population, especially from reservoir areas.

He said in view of the inter-provincial movement of population, the government had set up permanent transit points to administer vaccine to children on strategically important routes linking Punjab with other provinces, but the challenge was still a big one.

He said not only the year was polio free so far, the recent environmental samples were also reported negative for the disease.

Published in Dawn June 26th, 2015

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