GUJRANWALA, April 8: As many as 11 polio cases have been detected in the Punjab during the last year. This was stated by Unicef adviser Pervaiz Masood on Thursday while speaking at a meeting here.

It may be mentioned that the figure only included numbers of patients who were brought to the state-run health facilities. The cases handled by private medical practitioners, general practitioners, quacks and other traditional healers could not be counted owing to absence of surveillance system.

Survey reports of the project wing of the health department revealed that the state-run health facilities hardly provide one-fourth of the total health coverage in the Punjab.

Health department sources said that the private sector had been catering to the needs of 65 per cent patients in the province. There has been no surveillance system to check polio cases reported to the private sector health facilities, they said.

Mr Masood said that 24 polio cases were reported from Pakistan, India and Nigeria. He said that the second phase of the anti-polio campaign would be started from April 20 which would be continued till April 22.

The meeting was informed that 1,500 teams had been constituted in 188 union councils of the district to vaccinate children of five years of age. DCO Fazeel Asgher, EDO (health) Dr Zafar Iqbal Niazi, World Health Organization representative Dr Ahmad Darvesh, District Health Officer Dr Saeedullah Khan, DHQ Hospital MS Dr Nisar Ahmad Cheema and other senior officers attended the meeting.

No-Trust Move: The Naib Nazim of Shaheenabad union council No 43 survived a no-trust move on Thursday. General councillor Ahsan Karim Butt had tabled the no-trust move against Naib Nazim Qaiser Rashed Bhatti which was seconded by women councillor Saima Aqeel.