Preventing disease: Anti-polio mission arrives in city

Dr Mohammad will hold emergency meetings with the chief secretary, chief minister and governor.

PESHAWAR: An international mission of the World Health Organization (WHO) headed by polio expert Dr Mohammad Al Mohammadi arrived in Peshawar on Wednesday. The mission is tasked with recommending suggestions for eradication of polio and overseeing emergency vaccination campaigns in the city within seven days. Dr Mohammad is well-renowned for his efforts towards polio eradication and his work for this purpose in Somalia and more recently, Quetta. He will hold emergency meetings with the chief secretary, chief minister and governor. Earlier, the WHO had declared children in Peshawar are most at risk of contracting polio, stating that 70,000 children missed the anti-polio vaccines in the district this year.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2013.