Meeting with PM: Donors share anguish over polio campaign

Donors also shared reservations over the absence of a full-time dedicated polio focal person at the federal level.

ISLAMABAD:

International donors and polio partners in a meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sahrif have expressed concern over the growing threats faced by health workers in the country.

The attacks have crippled the fight against polio and other epidemics, especially in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) where no proper campaign could hit the mark since March this year, they said.

Donors also shared their reservations over the absence of a full-time dedicated polio focal person at the federal level after Shahnaz Wazir Ali, sources privy to the meeting informed The Express Tribune on Friday.

To make the campaign successful to a certain level, Nawaz was told, the authorities have to appoint a person to look after polio related affairs and to deal with the international agencies that are continuously helping to eliminate the polio virus from the country.

“International donors and partners in polio programme are facing difficulty while dealing with Pakistan’s polio cell as it is running its affairs without a focal person. We are moving without a strategy subsequently there are faults in operation while launching the health drive,” sources quoted an official of World Health Organisation (WHO) as saying.

The discussion took place during a high-level meeting on the Polio Task Force chaired by the premier.

The WHO regional director, Dr Ala Alwan, expressed reservations that the polio initiative was not on K-P’s priority agenda. The prime minister assured him that all four provinces will render an integrated effort in eradicating polio from Pakistan.

PM Nawaz assured his support to the polio-partners and said, “It is my earnest desire to make Pakistan a country where no parents see their child crippled by polio.”

The prime minister stressed that the success of the National Emergency Action Plan, developed in consultation with all stakeholders, depends on its proper implementation. He added that civil-military coordination mechanism will help a great deal in eradicating polio from Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The premier expressed the hope that the provincial governments will further enhance their anti-polio efforts.

He asked for nominating senior government officials as provincial polio focal persons and establishing provincial monitoring cells in the offices of the chief minister or chief secretary.

Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulation & Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar, briefed the meeting on strategies evolved for polio eradication from the country.

She said in 1994 there were 2,600 reported cases of polio in Pakistan while the figure for 2013 stands at 28, showing a sharp decline in polio cases in the country. She proposed that the task force must meet on quarterly basis to overview the progress made.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2013.