Polio eradication unit seeks pharma industry’s support for polio awareness

KARACHI: The polio eradication initiative in Sindh has signed an agreement with a local pharmaceutical firm for running awareness campaigns regarding polio vaccination in the country.

The development came when the authorities have also planned to launch a special drive to vaccinate 3.3 million children in the high-risk union councils of Sindh on coming Monday. A spokesperson for the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for Polio Eradication in Sindh on Friday said they had signed a letter of intent (LOI) with a pharmaceutical firm Pharmevo through which the pharmaceutical firm has joined the polio eradication programme as a partner for intensive, focused and coordinated efforts toward polio immunisation and containing transmission of the crippling disease.

According to the agreement, for the next two years, the firm would be targeting its efforts in areas such as featuring polio immunisation messages on pharma literature, running awareness campaigns on social media, and organising community sessions for promoting immunisation against the virus.

The EOC regularly partners with supporters from different segments of society and engages members of the academia and medical fraternity, including the Pakistan Paediatric Association, Pakistan Medical Association and Pakistan Islamic Medical Association to ensure that all the children in the province are vaccinated against polio.

Speaking on the occasion, Haroon Qassim, the managing director of the firm, said their vision was to build a healthier society. “As a socially responsible organisation, we are truly cognisant of the fact that a healthier society is only possible if we collectively work for polio eradication from Pakistan.” He expressed the hope that the alliance between the firm and EOC would help the cause and draw much-needed interest of the corporate sector towards the critical issue.