Federal Health Minister Naseer Mohammad Khan has said that the polio virus would be eradicated from the country by the end of the current calendar year. "A decade ago, Pakistan has 20,000 polio cases, which has now come down to only 12 this year.
This is because of our relentless efforts towards the eradication of the paralyzing ailment", he said while addressing a press conference here at the Peshawar Press Club (PPC) on Thursday.
He was flanked by NWFP Secretary Health Abdus Samad Khan, Director-General Health Services, Dr Jalilur Rehman, deputy director of the expanded programme on immunisation (EPI), Dr Waheed Khan, WHO's representative Dr Abraham and executive district officer, Health, Dr Mosam Khan.
The minister said, Pakistan was among the six countries out of the 190 in the world, which was still recording polio cases.
"Let there be a commitment that no children below the age of five year is not left out of the immunisation, because prevention is key to success", Khan said.
He was all praise for the hard efforts being put in by the health department in a harder province, like the Frontier, which the Afghan refugees migrated frequently.
Last year, a joint block including Pakistan and Afghanistan was created with a view to co-ordinate efforts with the officials of the Afghanistan and put brakes on the crippling ailment. The minister said that some 1,50,000 persons were indulged in the polio campaign in the country.
"We are on the right track", he said, hoping that the coming generation would be safe from poliovirus.
About other measures being launched by the federal government, he said that the federal health budget had been raised to Rs 10.5 billion this year to strengthen primary healthcare system.
Besides, he said that Rs 2.5 billion had been allocated for the prevention of the hepatitis, which has been making inroads in all the provinces.
"A huge amount of Rs 2.9 billion has been embarked for a national programme to control blindness. For this purpose, surveys and checks of the students would be carried out at the school level", he said.
Another Rs 1.5 billion had been allocated to strengthen tertiary level system in the Karachi, apart from paying attention to the improvement of the primary healthcare.
The minister said that a big amount of Rs 11 billion had been allocated this year to strengthen the EPI programme, to overcome the burden of the seven vaccine-preventable diseases, including polio. The EPI coverage at present is 73 percent, which can be jacked to 98 percent, he said, adding that the polio coverage stood at 99.7 percent.
"Our government has stopped receiving loans from the international monetary institutions. We have received 127 million dollars grant from donors and seven million dollars from the ADP", he said.
About NWFP, he said that Rs 900 million had been approved for three huge health schemes in the NWFP, that included construction of new DHQ at Nowshera district, building of women medical college.
About the drug prices, he said that the 53 percent of the drugs were cheaper in Pakistan than India. He also informed that efforts were afoot to launch projects aiming provision of safe drinking water and safe blood products to the people.
"We can put brakes on 80 percent of the diseases by providing clean drinking water and safe blood to the people", he said. In this connection, he said an ordinance was being implemented very soon.
Traditional medicines and way of treatment was also being given legal cover, because this sort of treatment was gaining currency throughout the world. China and India exported worth billion of traditional drugs to the outside world, he said.
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