Peshawar district gears up to fight polio

DG Health Sharif Ahmad Khan said that 21% of the total reported cases in the province are from Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Peshawar district will be divided into four regions to reduce polio refusal cases and ensure that vaccination is provided to all children. 

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Secretary Ghulam Dastagir. It was attended by World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF representatives along with the secretary and director general of health, special secretary elementary and secondary education and the district coordination officer.

DG Health Sharif Ahmad Khan said that out of 54 polio cases in the country, 24 were reported from K-P, while 85% of the total infected children in the country are Pakhtun. He further said that 21% of the total reported cases in the province are from Peshawar.

Khan added that the district administration has devised a legal framework to take action against clerics and religious groups that are spreading propaganda against anti-polio campaigns in Peshawar. He further said that if Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons are found guilty in disseminating false information, they will be expelled from Peshawar.



Another official Dr Imtaiz Ali Shah said that one representative each from the DCO’s office, DG Health and WHO will be responsible for the union councils in their respective regions and would directly report to the DCO.

At a meeting in Islamabad last week, Awami National Party Senior Vice-President Senator Haji Muhammad Adeel had said that his party will focus on health in their manifesto. However, he had said. “Polio cannot be eradicated from K-P until NATO forces pull out of Afghanistan and international funding for weapons to terrorists in the region is stopped.”

Two new polio cases were reported this month in the province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2012.