Special polio drive begins in Hazara: Authorities vow to address refusal cases

MANSEHRA: The Health authorities have vowed to address over 2,000 refusal cases in Hazara division during a four-day special anti-polio drive launched in eight districts of the division on Monday.

The refusal cases include 650 from Mansehra alone, District Health Officer Dr Shahzad Ali Khan told reporters after Deputy Commissioner Aurangzeb Haider launched the special anti-polio drive by administering drops to children. Additional Deputy Commissioner Yasir Khan and representative of Rotary Polio Resource Centre Syed Latif were present at the launching ceremony.

Dr Shahzad said during the previous five-day special anti-polio drive launched in Hazara division nine positive cases of the crippling disease were reported in Torghar and over 2000 silent refusals cases were traced in the division. “The health teams would first cover refusal cases reported during the last drive, besides reaching out to the targeted children in the division,” he explained.

Dr Shahzad said that there were over 1,40,000 silent refusal cases around the country, which were being addressed through such special campaigns. The DHO said during the ongoing four-day campaign from December 2 to 6, as many as 2,99,265 children would be administered drops in the Mansehra district alone. “We have constituted a total of 1080 fixed, mobile and transit teams with the human resource of over 2,700 people,” Dr Shahzad said.

Delegation from China visits school

A delegation of the doctors of philosophy (PhDs) from China visited the Mansehra district and encouraged students to join science and technology fields to put Pakistan on the way to prosperity and development.

“I am very much impressed by the intelligence of students here in Pakistan and if they join us for higher education in the contemporary disciplines, they could put the country on way to prosperity and development,” Fengying Yang, the head of Chinese delegation, told a reception hosted by the students and teachers at the Jinnah Basic School and Girls College here on Monday. The Chinese delegation is visiting Pakistan under government’s Teachers Exchange Programme between the two friendly countries. Yang said that time was not far when his country would launch a free-of-cost internet service for students around the world and Pakistan was among those countries. The college principal, Fayyaz Ahmad Swati, said that because of teachers’ exchange programme, they could gain much experience from the Chinese system. Earlier, students warmly received the delegation on arrival on the college premises and sang Chinese and Pakistan anthems.