Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Minister for National Health Services Abdul Qadir Patel on Friday called upon the concerned quarters to focus their efforts on remaining bottlenecks and meeting the last remaining challenges in finishing job of polio eradication in the country.
Chairing a high-level meeting, the minister said that Pakistan has surmounted the most daunting of challenges and we are now well poised to stop transmission of the poliovirus.
Earlier, Polio Emergency National Coordinator Dr. Shahzad Baig gave a detailed briefing on the current status of the Polio Eradication Program. He said that there has been a major decline in polio cases as in last year only one polio case was reported in the country while our efforts must continue till reaching zero case.
The coordinator informed that due to the consistent efforts of the present government and support from international partners, Provincial Governments, Armed Forces, and law enforcement agencies, polio cases had been significantly reduced.
The minister said that even a single case of polio in the country should be taken seriously and no effort should be spared to ensure the complete eradication of the disease from the entire country.
The meeting was informed that a new case has been reported from North Waziristan after 15 months. This is the third case of wild polio to be recorded globally in 2022 as in 2020 the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported 22 cases, while no wild poliovirus cases were recorded in the last year.
The minister appreciated the overall performance of the polio program. He also appreciated the role played by frontline workers and assured full support of the federal government for a better and healthy future for Pakistan.
The meeting was attended by Secretary National Health Services Aamir Ashraf, Director General Health Dr. Rana Safdar, Coordinator Polio Program Dr. Shahzad Baig, and heads of international partner agencies.
