PESHAWAR, Aug 06 (APP):Caretaker Minister for Health Akbar Jan Marwat Monday said that the country has made historic achievement in polio eradication as the number of cases has dropped from 306 in 2014 to 3 in 2018
and hoped that the country will soon be out of the list of endemic countries and the menace of polio will be wiped out for good.
This he said while inaugurating August round of anti-polio campaign here Monday at a local hotel by Pakistan Paedriatic Association (APP).
Present on the occasion were Director General Health
Services KP Dr Ayub Roze, Director EPI KP Dr Akram Shah, EOC Coordinator Abid
Wazir, AD EPI Dr Taimur Shah, Team Leads UNICEF and WHO, Dr Johar and Dr Abdi
Nasir, Technical Focal Person BMGF Dr Imtiaz Ali Shah, Team Leader N Stops Dr
Ijaz Ali Shah and President Provincial Chapter PPA Prof Dr Irshad.
Akbar Jan Marwat said that polio was an eradication
programme and unless every segment of society including media play its role in
it the disease will not be wiped out.
He played glorious tributes to the Sehat Muhafiz for doing
an outstanding job by reaching out to the target children despite many
challenges on ground and for immunizing the children with two drops of polio
vaccine which has delivered results in shape of significant drop of polio cases
in the country.
Akbar Jan Marwat assured all out support on behalf of the
caretaker provincial set up saying that polio eradication was a noble cause and
the government will continue to support it till all the children were protected
from this vaccine preventable disease and the virus circulation stops in the
region.
Earlier, EOC Coordinator Abid Wazir thanked the caretaker
government and said that PPA and media for their support and unequivocal
support for polio eradication saying that knocking out polio virus from the
country was not an easy job as the virus was communicable through human beings
yet due to the strong commitment of the government.
He said that PPA has a key role in sensitization and
mobilization of community for vaccination as the community trusts them and
urged them to create demand for vaccination in the community.
Coordinator EOC said that polio programme cannot start from
the scratch as it went a long way and it will either succeed or fail adding
that EOC KP will increase its coordination with PPA and media as they are the
two major stakeholders of the programme.
He asked PPA to nominate a crises communication focal point
for PEI who is trained and ready to interact with media in case of any issues
or crises that are linked to vaccination and added that PPA should arrange
orientation sessions for the undergraduates on PEI and public health
interventions as they will be the future doctors and will be interacting with
the community.
Director EPI KP Dr Akram Shah thanked media persons for
responsible reporting on polio and public health interventions and hoped that
media being the key public opinion maker will continue its support for polio
eradication and other essential immunization services that are provided by the
government free of cost for the welfare of children and community.
He said that 12 days measles campaign will start in the
province from October 15, next wherein 4.4 million target children will be
inoculated and asked media to promote the cause of essential immunization in a
bid to prevent children’s deaths.
Earlier, senior pediatricians including Prof Dr Irshad, Prof
Dr Hameed, Prof dr Ashfaq and Prof Dr Amin Jan Gandapur spoke at length on the
safety and efficacy of vaccines with specific focus on polio vaccine saying
that all vaccines were safe and do not cause deaths.
They said that deaths and adverse effects following
immunization were caused by human errors and not be vaccine and urged media to
be the strong advocate of polio eradication and essential immunizations as they
are the major cause of children’s deaths and can be prevented through free
vaccination services available at health facilities.
It merits mentioning here that three days’ anti-polio
campaign has started in 16 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from today with over
3.602 million target children.