No Polio Case Reported From Peshawar In Last Two Years: Azam Khan

Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muhammad Azam Khan has highly appreciated the performance of district and provincial administration for leading the programme against polio to success, saying Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will lead the country to polio free status as no polio case was reported from Peshawar during last two years

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Jan, 2018 ) :Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muhammad Azam Khan has highly appreciated the performance of district and provincial administration for leading the programme against polio to success, saying Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will lead the country to polio free status as no polio case was reported from Peshawar during last two years.

He said this during his meeting with the visiting Chairman Technical Advisory Group (TAG) for Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI), Jean-Mark who called on him here at his office on Friday. Chief Secretary said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the province that enacted law for making immunization mandatory which indicates the importance it accords to vaccination.

He assured the visiting TAG Chairman that efforts against polio eradication will continue unabated and that upcoming elections will not have any effect on the polio eradication efforts, which are run by Emergency Operations Center Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the support of Health Department KP.

Azam Khan thanked the Jean-Mark and partner organizations for supporting polio eradication initiative in the country, saying it was on the priority of the government viz-a-viz equal responsibility of parents to protect children from this crippling disease.

Commissioner Peshawar Dr Fakhr-e Alam said Peshawar was declared as a conveyer belt two years back by Independent Monitoring board (IMB) but due to the hard efforts of the teams and the district administration no polio case has been reported from it for the last two years.

Although the environmental sample of Peshawar was still positive despite no cases, he said adding that the issue is being closely watched and monitored.

He said vaccination of children at transit points and people on the move is the high focus of the programme and all possible efforts were being made to ensure maximum vaccination.

TAG Chairman Jean Mark appreciated the performance of the Peshawar Team saying that it has done a wonderful job by bringing down the number of cases and stressed on keeping up the current momentum till the case count was brought to zero as complacency was not an option at this stage of the programme.

He said Peshawar remains the priority since it is the transit route that is frequented by Afghan population particularly from Nangarhar Province where the virus is in circulation. Secretary Health Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Abid Majeed has said that with a view to strengthen the routine immunization services in the province the number of staff has been increased that will help address the lacunas in the existing service delivery system.

He further added that in response to the threat posed by virus in Nangarhar (Afghanistan), a comprehensive Northern Corridor Action Plan has been formulated stipulating a series of measures to be taken to ward off the threat.

Earlier, Deputy Commissioner Peshawar islam Zeb briefed the TAG Chair on the updated status of polio in the province, challenges and way forward. Director EPI Dr Akram Shah, Technical Focal Person BMGF Dr Imtiaz Ali Shah, Team Leader UNICEF Dr Joahar, Team Leader WHO Dr Abdi Nasir, Team Leader N Stop Dr Ejaz, National Coordinator N Stop Dr Mumtaz Ali Laghari, Risk Assessment and Decision Support WHO Dr Asma Ali were present on the occasion.