KARACHI: The provincial health ministry on Wednesday informed a top Unicef official that Karachi was free of poliovirus for more than a year and the northern parts of Sindh would soon pass a year without any incidence of the crippling disease.

Officials in the health ministry said Unicef regional director for South Asia Jean Gough paid a visit to the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for polio in Sindh.

She also visited Baldia Town to oversee the efforts for polio eradication in the metropolis. The area is considered to be the last bastion of the deadly virus.

She was accompanied by Unicef country representative Angela Kearney.

At the EOC, said officials in the provincial government, she was briefed on the working of the emergency operation centre and the headway made in polio eradication in Sindh.

The officials there were quoted as saying that it had been more than a year since Karachi last reported a polio case and soon it would be a year since northern districts of Sindh reported a case. Both these areas, officials said, had persistent virus circulation less than two years ago.

Ms Gough and Ms Kearney also met female front-line polio workers from across Karachi and had detailed discussions with them ranging from the route maps that were used in the field to how the improvements in the programme came about.

Ms Gough appreciated the role being played by the women.

“You are the true heroes of the programme,” she was quoted as saying.

The two senior officials also visited the town health office in Baldia where they met workers before being accompanied by them in the streets of UC-7 Baldia to interact with the community and see polio eradication activities.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2017