High-level polio delegation concludes visit to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, May 20 (APP): The three-day visit to Pakistan by the Chairman of the Polio Oversight Board, Regional Directors of the World Health Organization, UNICEF and senior directors of the global polio programme was concluded on Friday. The visit was aimed to support Pakistan in addressing the remaining challenges to containing polio transmission.

Pakistan has an important window of opportunity to end polio for good and it was encouraging to see first-hand the leadership and commitment to eradicating polio during my time in Pakistan, said Chris Elias, President, Global Development, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the current Chair of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s (GPEI) Polio Oversight Board (POB). With this continued leadership, innovation and resolve of brave health workers, I’m confident Pakistan will soon stop this disease, Elias added.

During their visit to Islamabad and Peshawar, the delegates visited Emergency Operation Centers, attended the National Task Force meeting and the Provincial Task Force meeting for polio eradication in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. They also held separate side meetings with Health Minister Qadir Patel.

Between April and May, three children in North Waziristan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were paralyzed by polio. These cases appeared after nearly 15 months of no wild polio cases in the country.

We know that the virus respects no borders; we must reach all children in Afghanistan and Pakistan with the polio vaccine to achieve a polio-free world. Under our Regional Vision, health for all can only be achieved through solidarity and action by all. Ending polio is a common goal for the common good, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern-Mediterranean Region Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari said.

The polio cases reported in Pakistan are not a setback and unsurprising for any country on the path to eradication, as witnessed in Nigeria, the last country to become polio-free, where a wild polio case was reported after 30 months of zero cases, the delegation noted.

A five-day nationwide polio campaign will begin on May 23 across Pakistan and will be synchronized with Afghanistan, so that children on both sides of the border are simultaneously protected, and the virus prevented from crossing borders.

UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia, George Laryea-Adjei said that more than 43 million children under five in Pakistan would be targeted for vaccination. Pakistan has come a long way in its efforts to end polio.

This was made possible due to the commitment of its government, and to the heroic efforts of hundreds of thousands of polio workers, more than half of whom are women, he said and added, today, we have an opportunity to be part of something historic, a polio-free future for all children in Pakistan, at last. To get there, we need to give a last push and intensify our efforts, so that every girl and boy can be vaccinated against this deadly virus that causes lifelong disability, and we can wipe it out, he expressed.