Pakistan

Battling disease: Anxiety over fresh polio case in Quetta

Balochistan health secretary orders action against relevant staff

Mohammad Zafar July 10, 2015

Balochistan health secretary orders action against relevant staff. PHOTO: REUTERS

QUETTA: Balochistan Health Secretary Noorul Haq Baloch has taken notice of the fresh case of polio in Quetta.

He has directed departmental action against the District Health Officer (DHO) Quetta and the staff of World Health Organisation and COMNet deployed in the provincial capital. “The initial investigation suggests that it was a refusal case,” Secretary Health Noor-ul-Haq Baloch told the meeting held at Emergency Operation Center (EOC) Balochistan.

The meeting was jointly chaired by the Coordinator EOC Balochistan Dr. Syed Saif Ur Rehman. Provincial heads of WHO, UNICEF, COMNet, N-STOP and other partner agencies were present. The officials concerned in the union council Pashtunabad 11-B were also called in and asked to present the findings regarding the polio case.

Read: War against disease: Significant decrease in polio cases, says UNICEF

The Coordinator Emergency Operation Center (EOC) Balochistan Dr. Syed Saif Ur Rehman has said it is the responsibility of everyone involved in the campaign to ensure that every single refusal case in Balochistan is covered. “We cannot ignore a single case in Balochistan and will utilize all the resources.”

Noorul Haq Baloch said it should be clear that the Health Department will not tolerate polio cases which are seriously challenging the government. “The District Health Officer, Polio Eradication Officer, Lady Health Workers and officials coordinating with international agencies will be suspended if cases in Balochistan are found,” Baloch said. “The confirmation of polio case would be considered a complete failure of the administration and partner agencies working in Balochistan,” he told the meeting.

Read: Polio cases drop by 70% in 2015: govt

The Secretary was briefed about the case and he lamented that serious actions were not taken to persuade and administer polio drops to children.

“No one can justify the refusal cases and inaccessible areas. Balochistan Health Department will utilize all its resources to end polio virus and ensure that every child of the province is vaccinated against the crippling disease.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2015.

COMMENTS (1)

Hari Om | 8 years ago | Reply The principal factor contributing to the prevalence of Polio in Pakistan remains Pakistan’s obsession for boxing way above her weight class and nurturing an outsize military in order to seek parity with India leaving limited resources for carrying out Polio vaccination which is near 100% effective in immunising against the Polio virus. Seeking parity with India by gorging on shiny new eye candy weapon systems, maintaining the Generals, Marshalls and Admirals of the Military in the princely Mughal style they are used to and strutting the world stage as the “Sole Islamic Nuclear Power”, “Citadel of Islam” etc. will as former Prime Minister Z.A. Bhutto put it require Pakistan “Eating Grass”. The solution is thus rather straight forward. Pakistan needs to accept that she is India’s inferior. The big question that then remains is will Pakistan make the rational choice and junk the braggadocio of attempting to seek equality with India? Or will it accept the inevitable consequence of stunted development entailing Pakistan’s civilians figuratively “Eating Grass” and wallowing in disease that can be eradicated with a simple vaccine? s

Replying to X