Minister upbeat about eradicating polio virus

Punjab Minister for Primary and Secondary Health Dr Yasmeen Rashid said on Tuesday that the country will soon get rid of the poliovirus owing to the robust campaign launched by the government.

Addressing a press conference at the Benazir Bhutto Hospital in Rawalpindi, she said that no polio case had been reported in the province so far this year while efforts were underway to eradicate it from the country.

Dr Yasmeen Rashid said Pakistan and Afghanistan were the only two countries in the world where the poliovirus existed. She also advised the public to take all possible precautionary measures as the number of dengue cases was increasing in the province with each passing day.

“So far around 605 dengue-positive cases have been reported in different parts of the province,” she said adding that 49 patients had so far been brought to allied hospitals of the garrison city, and of them, 36 were tested positive while results of the remaining 13 were awaited.

Read Polio vaccination drive starts

She said that around 17 dengue cases were reported in the province, including six in Rawalpindi during the last 24 hours.

Dr. Yashmeen Rashid said the dengue could not be declared a pandemic, but the virus was spreading in Punjab, including Rawalpindi very fast for which effective strategy and preventive measures were needed to be taken to arrest the dengue spread.

She urged the need for putting in place special measures to control the dengue spread it as the prevailing weather was most suitable for larvae breeding.

The Punjab health minister said that coronavirus cases were decreasing day by day in the province and only 880 cases were reported across the province in the last 24 hours.

“So far, more than 50 million people of Punjab have been vaccinated against coronavirus with the first dose while efforts are being made to achieve the 70%  target of vaccination by the end of the year. She said that over 400,000 people were being vaccinated against the lethal virus daily in Punjab.

Read more A polio hero striving to inoculate every child

She said that 87 liver transplant surgeries have been performed in the Punjab Kidney and Liver Transplant Institute so far.

Talking about the completion of the Rawalpindi Institute of Urology, the minister expressed the hope that it would become functional by April 2022.

Dr Yasmeen Rashid said that more than 23,000 people have been recruited in the health department through Punjab Public Service Commission on merit.

The minister said that seven mothers and child care centres were being established across Punjab, including Multan, Rajanpur, Layyah, Attock, and Bahawalnagar, while a mother and child care center in Mianawali would start working by March 2022.