Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Tuesday said the government is determined to make the country polio free very soon through effective vaccination through out the country. Talking to newsmen after inaugurating three-day national polio eradication campaign here at Prime Minister House, he said.
"Pakistan is committed to eradicating polio from the country very soon." The prime minister said that the polio eradication campaign is a part of the efforts of the government towards complete eradication of the polio.
He said that the polio drops, being given to the children are not injurious to health rather save them from the disease as it is being used through out the world.
He said there are only six cases of polio, reported through out the country and most of them are due to the movement of refugees across Pakistan and Afghanistan border. The prime minister said that Pakistan has launched vaccination campaign near the border areas of Afghanistan and also helping the Afghan administration in vaccination.
He thanked the co-operation and assistance of World Health Organisation (WTO) and other donors especially from Japan in launching three-day vaccination campaign to eradicate polio from the country.
Earlier, the prime minister Shaukat Aziz along with his wife Rukhsana Aziz administered polio drops to some of the children in the prime minister House. Federal Health Minister Muhammad Nasir Khan, Secretary Health Khusnood Akhtar Lashari, representatives of WHO, JICA and other donors were also present on the occasion.
During this three-day national vaccination campaign to eradicate polio, 33 million children would be given polio drops and the Health Department has deployed 75,000 teams to work in all over the country. In this three-day campaign, special emphasis would be given in the rural areas to administer the polio drops to the children.
Presently there are only six reported cases of polio in NWFP, Balochistan and Sindh while there has been no reported case of Polio from the Punjab since July last year. From Azad Jammu and Kashmir there has been no case of polio since 2000 while Islamabad, the federal capital is also without any reported case of polio since 2001.
Federal Health Minister Nasir Khan told the reporters that special vaccination campaign to eradicate polio would be started in August in the most vulnerable areas.
The Minister said in 1989 there were 15,000 cases of polio in Pakistan, while due to effective vaccination campaign, the number has been reduced to six only. The health minister said 12 posts have been set up along Pakistan-Afghanistan border for effective vaccination campaign to eradicate polio cases.