The co-ordination meeting for polio eradication and strengthening of routine immunisation will be held on September 6, 2005, in Karachi. This was announced by Sindh Health Minister Shabbir Ahmed Kaimkhani at a press conference at a local hotel on Saturday.
The minister said that Sindh government had taken the initiative to hold this meeting in Karachi to make a plan and strategy for eradication of polio in the country.
He said that only six countries including Pakistan remain polio-endemic in the whole world, and Pakistan represents one of the most promising hopefuls to achieve eradication in 2005.
He said that after more than 50 rounds of national immunisation days, the country is at the point of delivering the final push to join the community of polio-free countries.
The minister said that a multi-sectoral approach was required to overcome these remaining challenges. With regards to the press and media, awareness has to be created in the general population of the importance for parents to have their children routinely vaccinated against the seven childhood killer diseases by the age of one year.
"We have to learn the lesson that interruption of virus circulation is not sustainable without rapid boost in routine immunisation coverage", he said, adding that this had been demonstrated in countries such as Yemen and Indonesia, that were polio-free for years, only to experience major epidemics this year due to importation of the virus from countries that are still endemic.
Shabbir said the percentage of cases in Pakistan contributing to the global burden of polio have decreased from nearly 27.7 percent in 2000 to 1.4 percent in 2005 to date. In 2005, only 16 cases of polio appeared in Pakistan, and out of them only 3 in Sindh.
He said that the government is committed to make the country polio-free, and every necessary step would be taken in this regard.
Sindh Health Secretary Dr Noshad A. Shaikh, Additional Secretary (Dev.) Manzoor Ahmed Memon, Director General, Health Services Hadi Bux Jaroi and Project Director, EPI Sindh Khadim Hussain Lakhair were also present on this occasion.