KARACHI:
Chairman of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, called Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday and appreciated his efforts in eliminating polio virus from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Gates congratulated Khan on conducting a successful anti-polio campaign, ‘Sehat ka Ittehad’ (Alliance for Health) in the province.
Gates also expressed grief over the tragic Taliban attack on Peshwar school victims, killing 131 students.
The philanthropist assured his support to the KP government in carrying out further efforts to eliminate the disease that ‘cripples’.
Official data shows that an overwhelming 96 percent of polio cases so far have been reported amongst the Pashto-speaking population of KP and FATA.
The epidemiological statistics of the so far reported cases shows that 82pc cases are among children below 2 years of age, which indicates that either the parents are not willing to vaccinate their children or the teams had no access to those children who were with their mothers and could not be vaccinated outside homes.
Officials say the reason for this factor is that the health authorities are lacking female vaccinators who are more welcome to enter houses to administer polio drops.
An official of Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) told sources that it was strange that even though the new ‘Sehat Ka Ittehad’ campaign was a joint venture between the federal and KP governments, the EOC and the PM’s Polio Cell were completely unaware of it.
A KP health official associated with the polio eradication programme told private media sources that ‘Sehat ka Ittehad’ was the origination of PTI chief Imran Khan; even though tensions with the federal government remained over electoral rigging, health was not to be put under that banner.
“The situation is primarily due to a lack of access to children for vaccination, largely owing to a continuing ban on immunisation imposed by militants in the North and South Waziristan, and insecurity and killing of polio workers in the field,” said a progress report.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that Pakistan is responsible for nearly 80 per cent of polio cases reported globally.
