Eradication of polio is the top priority of PML-N's Social Development Programme for which the government of Punjab, under the guidance of Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, is striving hard with full commitment. By the grace of Allah Almighty, no polio case has so far been reported in the province.
Senior Advisor to Chief Minister Punjab, Sirdar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa said this while inaugurating a three-day national immunisation campaign against polio at Children's Hospital Saturday. Sirdar Zulfiqar Khosa maintained that in the prospective of present situation in the country, we have to work hard with full commitment for making the polio campaign a success, polio teams should reach every house of every town for administering polio drops so that no child should remains without vaccination.
He said that besides health department teams, government has given task to Divisional Commissioners and DCOs to ensure that 100 percent targets should be achieved during the drive. He directed the health department authorities that special attention should be paid on migratory children from other provinces especially tribal areas where, due to the terrorist activities, a lot of children have been deprived from anti-polio drops.
He further said that making polio campaign a success is the collective responsibility of government departments. If rest of the world has defeated this menace and they are free from polio then why this disease is still present in our country, he said. Earlier, Special Secretary Health, Wasim Mukhtar informed that a total number of 1,60,36,873 children of five years of age would be administered polio-drops during national anti-polio campaign, from 18th to 20th July.
For this purpose, department has constituted 31,960 mobile teams which would visit door to door for this purpose whereas 4,172 static teams have been stationed at fixed points like railway stations, bus terminals etc. Moreover, 2,197 teams have been posted at the exit points of the cities for administering polio drops to the travelling children. He told that 1,213 zonal supervisors and 6,515 area in-charges have also been deputed to supervise/monitor the campaign. Dean Children's Hospital, Professor Tahir Masood also addressed the ceremony and highlighted the efforts of the hospital for providing best treatment facilities to the children.
Besides, Special Secretary Health Wasim Mukhtar, Director General Health Dr Aslam Chaudhry, Medical Officer WHO Dr Debra Betal, Unicef representative Dr Mushtaq Rana, Dean Children Hospital, Professor Tahir Masood, Medical Director, Professor Ahsan Waheed Rathore, EDO Health Lahore, Dr Umer Farooq Baloch and other senior officers of the department were present on the occasion.
It may be noted that the number of polio cases have reduced from thousands to just 140 cases in 2010 and the disease polio remained in just a few places across the country. Official circles claim that Pakistan has made tremendous progress towards achieving polio targets and global experts have reaffirmed that country could be the next polio free country in the world. The government has brought Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) support for introduction of pneumococcal vaccine for the country under a co-financing mechanism.
Targets for the health sector during 2010-11 included establishment of 15 Rural Health Centres (RHC), 40 Basic Health Units (BHUs) and upgrading of 45 existing RHCs and 900 BHUs. Despite financial constraints, government has shown its resolve to continue investments in the social sector in order to improve human development index, the sources added.