KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Monday said it was due to the political commitment and focused efforts of the Pakistan Peoples Party particularly in the high-risk union councils of the province that no new case of polio had emerged since July 2020.

He was talking to reporters after inaugurating a seven-day province-wide polio campaign at Sobhraj Hospital where children would be administered oral drops.

Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, parliamentary secretary on health Qasim Siraj Soomro, health secretary Zulfiqar Shah, Karachi Commissioner Iqbal Memon and others were present on the occasion.

“The Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for polio has launched a province-wide polio campaign from Dec 13 to 19 as part of the national immunisation days to give oral polio drops to over nine million children of under five years across the province,” the CM said.

Murad says no new polio cases reported since July 2020

The drive would be conducted in all the 30 districts of the province, he said, adding that out of the targeted children, more than two million lived in Karachi.

Mr Shah said that because of the coronavirus pandemic, anti-polio campaigns, including routine immunisation could not be carried out for a considerable period of time, therefore, an immunity gap in children had developed.

“The gap is being addressed through back-to-back monthly polio campaigns since Aug 2020 and we have controlled the spread of the virus throughout 2021,” he said. “Thanks to these campaigns that Sindh has not reported a single new case of polio since July 2020 and environment samples are also coming in negative, which is quite encouraging,” he said.

The CM said the communities living in the super high-risk union councils [for polio] needed more services through new initiatives. “We have installed water filtration plants, experimental dispensaries, model EPI centres, mother and child health facilities, among other initiatives in such union councils,” he said.

He said that while dealing with the pandemic of coronavirus, the authorities must also deal with childhood immunisation to prevent childhood diseases.“Children can be saved from diseases like polio through vaccination,” he said, urging media to raise awareness among the people.

He said the Pakistan Paediatric Association, Pakistan Medical Islamic Medical Association, medical experts across the world, as well as prominent religious scholars in Pakistan and across the region endorsed the oral polio vaccine as the safest and most effective for not only preventing polio, but also eradicating it from the environment,

“During the polio campaign launched in September, the government has achieved more than 98 per cent coverage,” he added.

Meanwhile, the CM met assistant superintendents of police (ASP) of Specialised Training Programme at National Police Academy, on Monday at the CM House.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2021