Pak, Afghan officials join hands to eliminate polio

LANDIKOTAL: The officials of Pakistan and Afghanistan on Tuesday agreed to jointly work to root out polio virus. A meeting of health officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan was held at Torkham border town.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa polio focal person Dr Nadim Jan, Kashif Islam, Dr Burhanuddin, Misal Khan, Dr Wazir Khan, Jan Muhammad, World Health Organisation manager Dr Ikram, and representatives of UNICEF attended the meeting.

The meeting continued for three hours at the civil administration office. The Pakistani officials welcomed the Afghan counterparts. Both sides discussed various issues related to health and polio. They agreed to coordinate with each other and improve polio vaccination campaigns on the both sides of the border to completely wipe out the virus from the region.

The officials said that polio was their common enemy and would fight it side by side. They said that on the basis of mutual cooperation they could reach every child in the countries to administered polio drops. The officials would increase the number of polio workers on the Torkham border to manage proper vaccination of the children travelling from and to Afghanistan in the coming anti-polio campaigns, they added.