District Co-ordination Officer Multan Iftikhar Babur has urged the medical officers, paramedical staff, NGOs and opinion leaders to launch an effective campaign for eradication of polio and to maintain the polio-free status of Multan district.
He observed this while launching the 56th three-day round of the anti-polio campaign, which started today (September 27). The DCO said that due to untiring efforts of the district government Multan and other collaborating organisations, they had successfully rooted out the P2 and P3 type of polio virus from the country and "now we are fighting only against monovalent polio virus".
The DCO said he was optimistic that polio would be completely eradicated by the end of this year. However, he said, "we must continue our anti-polio campaign till Pakistan is not declared a polio-free country."
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN: He said the government was taking keen interest in eradicating polio and hepatitis virus and in this connection, a comprehensive plan has been chalked out by Prime Minister Aziz and hoped that with the participation of the people, the day was not far off when the people of this country would be fully protected from epidemics and fatal viruses.
He said contaminated water was one of the main causes for spreading hepatitis and other water-borne diseases. As such priority to supply safe water to the people was being given at the government level.