KARACHI, Jan 19: The 42nd round of anti-polio campaign was opened by representatives of international agencies and Sindh's health department here on Monday. A walk was also held near the Government Dispensary Sultanabad to mark the occasion.
Even though the drive was formally launched on Monday, the mass vaccination of children will be kicked off on Tuesday and will go on for three days. All over the country 7.9 million children are slated to be vaccinated against polio.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Dr Khalife Bile Mohammad, the WHO's representative to Pakistan, expressed the hope that by the end of the year Sindh will become polio-free. "I hope, we all hope, that Sindh will become the first province in the country to be declared polio-free," he said.
Dr Mohammad added that in Asia only three countries - namely Pakistan, India and Afghanistan - were yet to be rid of polio. "The African countries where polio still exists is Egypt, Niger and Nigeria."
He was of the view that Sindh's performance in this regard was better than the other provinces. Provincial Minister for Zakat and Ushr, Irfan Gul Magsi, speaking as the chief guest expressed similar feelings.
Provincial Health Secretary, Ashique Hussain Memon, appealed to the parents to get each child vaccinated. "Some people think that a child should be vaccinated only once. We want to tell the parents that each child should be vaccinated each time there's a National Immunization Day.
"Only by vaccinating every child again and again can we hope to banish polio from our land. No child is safe until every child is safe." Dr Imtiaz Mughal, Project Director of the Expanded Programme on Immunization, Iqbal Dewan, an additional secretary, and Raana Syed and Dr Asif Aslam of the Unicef were also present on the occasion.
Lately a positive change has been brought about in the province vis-a-vis efforts against polio. These views were expressed by Dr Mohammad during a meeting with the Sindh's health secretary and other senior officials on Monday, adds APP.
He stressed that there was no room for complacency but the situation appeared to be well within control for now. He urged the health department officials to involve other partners and sectors in the fight against polio.
Dr Mohammad maintained that a few problems in a few districts could be effectively resolved by convening regular meetings of the EPI Acceleration and Polio Eradication Committees, headed by the district nazims and DCOs.
He appreciated the role being played in this regard by Sindh's Chief Secretary, Dr Mutawakkil Kazi, whom he had met earlier in the day. Director-General Health, Dr Qadir Bakhsh Memon, Director of EPI, Dr Imtiaz Ali Mughal, Medical Officer of the Polio Eradication Initiative, Dr M. Azmoudeh, and WHO Operations Officer for Sindh, Dr Ghulam Nabi Kazi, were also present.
During the meeting Dr Athar Saeed Dil, Executive Director of the National Institute of Health, conveyed full support of the federal ministry of health to the government of Sindh. He pointed out that the federal ministry was sending periodic reports to the president and prime minister, who had created monitoring cells in their respective secretariats.
Sindh's Secretary for Health, Ashiq Hussein Memon, thanked the WHO representative and the federal government and added that his department was adopting a "zero tolerance approach" in all matters concerning polio.
Dr Nicholas Ward, Chairman of the WHO Polio Technical Advisory Group for Pakistan, stressed that as the country approached eradication there might be one or two sporadic cases of polio which should not overly perturb the health authorities. He pointed out that he had come all the way from Geneva to assess the quality of the anti-polio campaign.