As Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani is launching the December round of the Polio Eradication Campaign today, six new polio cases have been reported from across the country, raising alarm bells for the health authorities.
The prime minister will administer polio drops to children here at a brief ceremony in this connection. He is also expected to speak on the occasion and share the progress made so far in this regard and challenges ahead.
A federal health official said here on Thursday that the PM would call upon all stakeholders including parents to play their role in ensuring the control on the spread of that crippling disease and its complete eradication.
The official revealed that at least six new polio cases have been reported to the federal health authorities from across the country. He added that the new cases were reported one each from Bannu and Kohat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and four cases from Killa Abdullah, Killa Saifullah, Harnai and Pishin in Balochistan province.
He said the federal government was alarmed by the spread of polio across the country and it had directed all the provincial government to accelerate efforts for its eradication.
According to the official, the total number of polio cases reported in Pakistan in 2011 was 174 whereas the number of similar cases was 144 last year.
He said, “It is very disturbing because as compared to Pakistan the number of polio cases in other countries is far low. In India only on polio case was reported during the current year, in Afghanistan the number was 59 and in Nigeria there have been 45 cases,” the official said.
Dr Altaf Bosan, the national coordinator at the Prime Minister’s Polio Monitoring Cell, while talking to Pakistan Today said, “The causes of increasing number of polio cases are different in different areas. In FATA, KP and Balochistan it is due to the security concerns the polio vaccine drive could not reach the remotest areas there. That’s why the relatively calm Punjab province has showed better performance in this regard.”
He said the implementation of every campaign is being managed by district management bodies and polio campaign for FATA and other high risk areas will be held from 19 to 21 of this month.
During the last meeting to review the progress of the National Emergency Action Plan held at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Altaf Bosan said, it was learnt that there was a 61 percent increase in the number of polio cases across the country and Balochistan and Sindh were among the worst hit provinces. He said the main reason for sub-optimal performance in parts of Sindh and Balochistan was that the union council-level polio eradication committees were non-functional.
He said the said meeting was also informed that a stern action was being taken in Punjab against the low performing executive district officers (EDOs) of the Health Department there.
Six new police cases as PM opens national campaign today
