KARACHI, Nov 17: The newly-inducted federal minister for health, Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani, has said that improved vaccination of children under five can rid the country of polio by the next year.

Speaking at an inter-provincial programme on expanded immunisation activities on Monday, the minister said it was highly depressing that Pakistan, which was about to give polio a final push with a remarkably decreased number of reported polio cases about two years back, had once again reported a considerable increase in polio cases.

However, he was of the view that the increasing number of cases might be the result of good surveillance activities across the country.

Claiming that the government is fully committed to eradicating polio, he said it would continue to support the immunisation of infants and children by giving it political, financial and administrative ownership in line with the policy of the slain chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party Benazir Bhutto who wished the children be freed of the dreaded polio disease years back.

Mr Jakhrani said the government would soon constitute a national coordination committee on polio and other health issues. The federal health minister would be its chairman and provincial health ministers, AJK minister for health, and federal and provincial health secretaries will be its member.

Representatives of the World Health Organisation and Unicef in Pakistan will also be invited to the committee’s meetings when discussing matters related to polio eradication.

He said that the objective of the coordination committee’s formation was to ensure better monitoring of progress on health projects being run at the provincial and district levels with the federal government’s financial support.

“With more innovative initiatives and interventions, recognition of the right of under-resourced and less-educated quarters to have access to quality services and maximum participation of the lady health workers in the public sector, we can have 100 per cent vaccination coverage for children,” he noted.

While promising that he would give due consideration to other demands of the provinces, the minister said that the districts facing shortage of vehicles for immunisation activities would start getting one or two vehicles very soon.

He also observed that there was a need to develop coordination between the federal, provincial and district governments so that different health targets could be met at the earliest. “If polio can be contained in Azad Kashmir and Fana years back why can’t it be eradicated from other parts of the country?” he questioned.Among other recommendations, the meeting called for according a top priority to routine immunisation to help rid the country of polio virus. The recommendations were presented by Sindh expanded immunization programme chief Dr Mazhar Khamesani.