LAHORE: National Coordinator of the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme Dr Shahzad Baig says the virus in the Outfall Road area of Lahore has been detected on time and it was not unexpected, considering the movement of population between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He said the performance of the district team would be judged after March and until then the poliovirus should be eliminated from the provincial capital. He called for improving the capacity of the district health administrations of big districts.

Dr Baig was speaking at the review of the investigation jointly conducted by the provincial and district teams in the aftermath of a positive sample collected from the Outfall Road in the provincial capital.

During the meeting, the National and Punjab Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC) coordinators called for improving the quality of upcoming campaigns to ensure vaccination of every child in the country.

Dr Baig said the programme was on its way to eradicate polio as was evident from the decline in genetic clusters.

He claimed the genetic clusters of polio virus had declined from seven to one, declaring it an extraordinary achievement of the programme. He stressed strict surveillance to ensure eradication of polio from the country.

Speaking on the occasion, Khizer Afzaal, the head of the polio programme in Punjab, stressed that in order to eliminate the virus, districts needed to strengthen polio drives.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2023