Islamabad: Japanese Ambassador Takashi Kurai visited the National Emergency Operation Centre for Polio Eradication here Wednesday to learn more about Pakistan’s progress in the domain of polio eradication.
“Pakistan values the financial support from the people and government of Japan to procure much-needed polio vaccine and hopes that this contribution will go a long way in stopping the circulation of virus in Pakistan,” the Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio Eradication Ayesha Raza Farooq stated while welcoming the envoy.
The dignitary was taken to the polio control room for a briefing on live data collection of campaigns by the national coordinator of EOC, and was also briefed on polio cold-chain management. He also inspected the cold storage for polio vaccine.
Only recently, the government of Japan had extended a soft loan of US 59 million to Pakistan for polio eradication. This loan will be utilized to procure 273 million doses of Oral Polio Vaccines for polio eradication campaigns.
Since 1996, for over 20 years, Japan has supported polio eradication campaign in Pakistan by way of procurement of polio vaccine, strengthening the logistics for delivery through cold chain system, improvement in the treatment of vaccinators, dispatching Japanese medical experts, and so on. Thereby Japan’s assistance including this loan reaches US $ 212.5 million in total.