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Thursday March 28, 2024

UC chairmen urged to make Karachi polio-free in 2020

By Our Correspondent
December 13, 2019

Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho said on Thursday that despite the emergence of 14 polio cases in the province, including six in Karachi, this year, there was a “golden opportunity for the provincial authorities” to make environmental samples negative and eradicate the crippling disease from the province.

Addressing a ‘Role of UC Chairmen Conference on Polio in Karachi by EOC Sindh: United Above Politics for a Polio-Free Pakistan’, she said Sindh had only one polio case in 2018, which was from Karachi, and now there are 14 polio cases in the province, out of which six were from Karachi.

Environment samples in Karachi are testing positive, but we have a golden opportunity to make these samples negative again in the upcoming campaigns which will be planned regularly from December 2019 to June 20120, she added.

The polio conference of all the UC chairmen of Karachi was organised by the Emergency Operation Centre for Polio at the Arts Council auditorium. UC chairmen from different political parties showed up in a big number to pledge their support for polio eradication in Karachi, Sindh and Pakistan.

Dr Pechuho, Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar, health secretary Zahid Ali Abbasi and Coordinator EOC Sindh Rehan Baloch, local government secretary Roshan Ali Shaikh presided over the conference and were joined by National Coordinator NSTOP Pakistan Brig (retd) Kamal Soomro, Team Lead UNICEF Sindh Polio Dr Shoukat Ali and Deputy Team Lead WHO Sindh Polio Asif Ali Zardari.

The mayor thanked the UC chairmen for attending the event and said that it was their responsibility as elected representatives to accompany teams to ensure that citizens receive the polio vaccine.

He added that polio eradication was a national cause and was above politics and “each one of us should play their part and work together as responsible elected officials”.

Coordinator EOC Sindh Rehan Baloch briefed the gathering on the global progress on polio eradication. “In 1988, 125 countries were reporting polio cases; now there is only Pakistan and Afghanistan that remain polio- endemic.”

He further explained that the world, including western countries as well as Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran, had eradicated polio through the oral vaccine. There was a question and answer session at the end of the conference and UC chairmen pledged to enhance their roles and support for polio teams in the upcoming campaign.

A week ago, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, expressing his displeasure and anguish over the emergence of 14 polio cases in the province during 2019, had directed the health department to launch a campaign with new strategy and vigour by involving UC councilors and members of the provincial assembly of different parties.

He also issued directives for administering polio drops to every person at transit points such as Jacobabad, the Mochko post and the Karachi Toll Plaza. He also declared 2020 the year of polio-free Sindh for which he assigned the task to all the relevant departments and divisional and district administratons as well as to the municipal administrations.

He issued these directives and guidelines on Friday while presiding over a meeting of the Provincial Taskforce for Polio Eradication at the CM House. The meeting was attended by Minister for Health Dr Azra Pechuho, Minister for Local Government Nasir Shah, Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar, Shahnaz Wazir Ali of SZBIST and others.

The chief minister said that the emergence of 14 cases in the province in 2019 had undone all the efforts the provincial government had taken so far. “We had 30 cases in 2014 and after that the provincial government with its effective campaign controlled the situation and the cases started declining,” he said and said the cases in 2015 were 14, in 2016 eight, in 2017 two and in 2018 one case, but in 2019 we had returned to the worst situation, which was somewhere between 2014 and 2015.

The chief minister was told that out 14 polio cases in 2019, six were detected in Karachi Division and eight in other divisions of the province.

The cases reported in Karachi include Safia of Lyari who belongs to Quetta. Nisar of Gadap is a Pashtun as is Zakia of Orangi Town. Manahil of Orangi is Seraiki-speaking and belongs to Multan. Ahmed of Jacob Line is a Pashtun and originally belongs to Hyderabad. Abdullah of Keamari is a Baloch child and belongs to Landhi.

The chief minister said the cases detected in Karachi were among those children who originally belonged to Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The chief minister said that the cases as analysed by him through the data shared with him showed that the majority of the cases were of Pashtun children and they belong to Gadap. “This indicates that the Pahstun families have their visitors from KPK and Balochistan, who might be carrying polio virus,” he said.