Focused efforts urged to fight polio

KARACHI, March 09, 2011 (PPI): Speaker Sindh Assembly Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has said that President Asif Ali Zardari would call a meeting of all ruling coalition parties within a week for resolving burning issues of country.

He was talking to media on Wednesday after speaking at a moot on “Situation Analysis of Recent Immunization Campaign in Sindh”, organized by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) at a local hotel.

He hoped that the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) MPs would attend the assembly session on 10th March.

Khuhro expressed concern about increasing polio cases in the province and said that the Sindh Health Department and other relevant organizations should concentrate on polio eradication campaign. He said that Shaheed Benazir Bhutto had started polio campaign in 1988 for making country free from polio.

Earlier, National Manager of Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) and Polio Eradication Dr. Altaf Bosan briefed the moot about current status of polio and national emergency action plan in Sindh. He said that the 11 cases of polio were registered from Sindh in 2009 and 27 cases in 2010. He said two new cases have been registered in the first two months of current year which is a bad omen.

He said that the polio campaign was facing some challenges in Sindh including low capacity and lack of accountability, poor implementation of the campaign activities and inconsistent coverage in accessible areas, managerial issues, lack of owner ship at that level of District Health Management Team (DHMT), poor supervision and monitoring.