Support has increased from Islamic Advisory Group on Polio Eradication.
PHOTO: FILE
At the third annual IAG meeting in late July in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Muslim scholars from across the world said parents should vaccinate their children against vaccine preventable diseases.
Also present on the occasion, Islamic Development Bank President Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali said they had provided funds of $100 million to support efforts of the federal government and the partners in order to eradicate polio from the country by the end of 2018.
Officials from the EOC Peshawar told the media those involved in polio campaigns have further enhanced their activities adding that more and more people will be involved so that the target to eradicate the virus from the region in 2016 was achieved.
“We have decided it and we have been saying this for the last nine months that 2016 will be the year for eradicating poliovirus from the region,” a senior health official said. He added officials dealing with polio campaigns in the tribal areas were putting all their efforts to inoculate every single child against the virus.
He maintained that since the Fata officials were doing their job, officials dealing with the polio campaigns will have to invest all their energies so that those children who missed the campaign are inoculated.
“We had identified some union councils where we feared the virus could exist,” the official said. “But now we have finally decided an extensive campaign will be carried out with community-based vaccinators to reach every house, to inoculate every single child.” He also said a campaign has been scheduled, but before that data on children was being collected so that if any child missed the campaign, it could be encircled and chased until vaccinated against the virus.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 20th, 2016.
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