TAXILA: Special Assistant to Punjab Chief Minister on Polio Eradication Uzma Kardar has said the government was implementing a comprehensive plan to eradicate the crippling disease by mid-2025.

The plan focuses on high-quality campaigns, targeted outbreak responses and strengthening routine immunisation.

She expressed these views while talking to newsmen at an anti-polio transit point established at the KP-Punjab border in Attock Khurd on Monday.

She reaffirmed the provincial government’s support for polio eradication efforts, stressing that the commitment to wiping out the disease was unshakeable.

“We have two additional campaigns scheduled for October and November which will focus on closing the gaps identified in the September campaign and strengthening vaccination efforts in hard-to-reach areas,” she said while responding to a question.

“We also made tremendous efforts to update our understanding of migrant and mobile populations to be able to better reach these moving communities and vaccinate vulnerable children,” she said, adding, “We are seeing progress in some key areas, but we will see there is still much work to do as we prepare for the October campaign”.

She said this year 24 cases of polio had been reported from 13 districts of Pakistan.

She visited the polio transit point and administered drops to children. She urged health authorities to launch a robust vaccination campaign at all entry points of Punjab to ensure elimination of the poliovirus.

Later, she presided over a meeting to review the anti-polio strategy evolved by Attock district administration. Deputy Commissioner Attock Rao Atif Raza, Assistant Commissioner Hazro Ayesha Badar, District Health Authority chief executive officer Dr Asad Ismail and other officers were present on the occasion.

The meeting decided to track and register mobile and migrant populations across Punjab to ensure comprehensive vaccination coverage.

Addressing the participants, Ms Kardar stressed the need for accurate data collection on missing children during vaccination drives, aiming to ensure that no child is overlooked. Proposals for enhancing the vaccination campaign’s effectiveness through a detailed micro-plan were reviewed.

Briefing the participants, the deputy commissioner said that more than 300,000 children under five years of age will be administered polio drops during the campaign in Attock.

In this regard, he added, special teams had been formed while control rooms would be established at the district and tehsil levels.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2024