IN a telephone call with Bill Gates, co-chair of Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed commitment to eradicate Polio from the country. While expressing concern over reporting of new cases in 2022 after one year without any Polio cases, the PM noted that there had been a pause in Polio cases since September 2022.
There can be no two opinions about Pakistan’s commitment to weed out the menace of Polio as it has rigorously carried out successive campaigns for this purpose over last several years. It is because of repeated campaigns that country is now close to the goal of being declared as ‘Polio free’ – thanks to active collaboration of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and institutions like BMGF. As unprecedented floods and rains affected vaccination campaign last year, government was ‘actively implementing’ special emergency response plan to reach out to children in affected regions. As for overall success of the Polio eradication campaign, there is still some sort of resistance in some regions yet on the whole awareness about Polio vaccination has increased significantly due to consistent efforts of government and supportive role of the national media. We would also urge that, like Polio eradication, government should seek support from different global partners for similar campaigns against more dangerous diseases like Hepatitis and TB.
