Health minister vows to end polio in K-P

Urges better coordination amongst all stakeholders, hails efforts of vaccinators

PESHAWAR: The caretaker provincial health minister on Wednesd­­ay vowed to extend his support to end the poliovirus from the region, terming polio eradication a national emergency.

This was stated as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Caretaker Minister for Health and Population Welfare Akbar Jan Marwat embarked on his first official visit of the Services Hospital and K-P Emergency Operation Cell for Polio Eradication in Peshawar.



During the visit, he stressed that strong coordination amongst all stakeholders under the umbrella of the health department was the only way forward to get rid of the crippling virus.

He was briefed about the polio eradication initiatives in the province, the challenges and the way forward.

Officials told Marwat about the current situation, specifically efforts to halt the transmission of the poliovirus. He was told that there had been a sharp decline in the number of poliovirus cases in recent years and if efforts continue in the same vein, the region could soon be polio-free.

The minister, according to officials privy to the meeting, appreciated the strong commitment of the health department for polio eradication and for improving other health care indicators in the province, noting that he will be happy to play his role in eradicating polio during his tenure in the office.

K-P Health Secretary Abid Majeed thanked the caretaker health minister for acknowledging the importance of the polio eradication programme and for his maiden visit to EOC to show his resolve for the programme.

A statement issued from the health department added that the minister was briefed about the efforts of those involved in polio eradication, adding that the minister paid tribute to the vaccinators for braving many challenges in the field to materialise the dream of a polio-free Pakistan.



Earlier, K-P EOC Coordinator Atif Rehman told the minister the meeting about the provincial and national management structure of the programme, establishment and objective of the EOCs to provide a common platform to government and technical partners for making joint strategies for PEI, its monitoring and implementation mechanism, the statement read.

Rehman said that the programme had delivered the desired results, with the graph of cases from the province falling from 68 in 2014 to just one in 2017. So far this year, he said, no case had been reported, demonstrating the impact of the programme’s effort and the hard work of the teams.

Besides Majeed and Atif, Director General Health Services Dr Ayub Rose, Director EPI Dr Akram Shah, Technical Focal Person Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation Dr Imtiaz Ali Shah, Team Lead UNICEF Dr Johar, WHO representative Dr Ilauddin, Provincial Team Lead N Stop Dr Ijaz Ali Shah and relevant staff of health and partner organizations were also present on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2018.