KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that since July 2020 no new polio case has emerged in the province and its credit goes to regular campaigns and the environment samples have also been turned negative by opening water filtration plants, experimental dispensaries, model EPI centers, and mother and child health facilities.
“Zero polio cases across the province since July 2021 is good news for the future of the children of Pakistan.” This he said on Friday just after launching a week-long anti-polio drive by administering polio drops to children at CM House.
The ceremony was attended by Provincial Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Parliamentary Secretary on Health Qasim Siraj Soomro, Commissioner Karachi Iqbal Memon, Secretary Health Zulfiqar Shah, DG Health Dr Juman Bahoto, Provincial Coordinator EOC Fayaz Abbasi, Project Director Irshad Memon and others.
Minister Health Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho briefing the CM said that the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for polio has launched a province-wide polio campaign from 28th February to 6 March 2022, as part of the national immunization days to give oral polio drops to over almost 10 million children under 5-years of age across the province.
The campaign is conducted in all 30 districts of the province. She said that out of the targeted 9 million children, more than two million live in Karachi. A total of 70,000 polio workers with more than 10,000 supervisors will take part in this campaign, the CM was told.
Minister health said that since 2020 no new polio case has been detected in the province. The chief minister said that thanks to regular campaigns our province has not reported a single case of polio since July 2020 and environment samples have also been found negative across the province since July 2021 which is great news for the future of the children of Pakistan.
“If we continue with the same momentum, we will further see significant results, but we must not get complacent and continue the hard work,” he said and added “we understand that communities in the super high risk Union Councils for polio need other services and we are addressing this through new initiatives.”
He added we have opened water filtration plants, experimental dispensaries, model EPI centers, mother, and child health facilities among other initiatives.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022