ISLAMABAD, Dec 16: Federal Minister for Health Mir Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani on Tuesday has constituted an inter-provincial committee on polio that would be responsible for overall policy direction, monitoring, and review of the polio eradication efforts throughout the country.

The decision was taken at a high level meeting here on Tuesday with Federal Minister for Health in the chair. The meeting was convened to review the findings of World Health Organization (WHO) sponsored visiting mission.

According to a press release, Secretary Health, Director General Health, National Programme Manager EPI, representatives of WHO, Unicef, World Bank, JICA, DFID, CIDA, USAID, and Rotary International attended the meeting.

Chaired by Federal Health Minister, the committee will include provincial health ministers, federal and provincial health secretaries, secretaries health Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Northern Areas, representatives from WHO, UNICEF, and donors’ agencies.

The purpose of the meeting was to have a review of polio eradication in Pakistan especially in the backdrop of recent surge of cases in 2008 and to strategize future course of action for polio eradication.

The Minister reaffirmed the commitment that Pakistan would continue to carry out quality National Immunization Days parallel with routine immunization until polio is eradicated.

He said the Extended Programme on Immunization was started by Benazir Bhutto and it was her dream to make Pakistan polio-free.

“We will make best possible efforts to turn Benazir's dream into reality”, reiterated Jakhrani. He stressed the need of taking religious leaders into confidence.

Jakhrani agreed with the suggestion to make health managers more accountable. He said no laxity on the part of the immunization teams shall be tolerated. On procurement management of vaccines, he said the government would ensure timely delivery of quality vaccines to the end users.

He directed to procure vaccines centrally that would bring costs down and ensure quality. Delivery of vaccines shall be made at the provincial level for distribution to the districts, he said.

Director Global Polio Eradication Initiative Dr Aylward Raymond Bruce informed the meeting about his team's findings.

He said that his team looked independently at the cold chain arrangements and found the arrangement satisfactory and according to global standards. Efficacy and quality of polio vaccine was also studied.

The mission recommended social studies in the areas reporting refusals to administer vaccine to children. Dr. Bruce also recommended spot surveys and counting only those children who are finger-marked during immunization campaign.