Polio programme back on track, says Dr Zafar Mirza

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza has claimed that the country's polio immunization programme is back on track, The News reported on Monday. 

Dr Mirza made the claim while speaking at a briefing session organised by the coordinator of the National Emergency Operations Centre, Dr Rana Muhammad Safdar, on the completion of the recently held anti-polio campaign. 

The drive had been carried out from December 16-20, 2019.

The special assistant thanked the law enforcement agencies for their "unprecedented support" during the drive. 

“For the first time, there was no geographical space on the map of Pakistan that was not accessible to polio teams,” Dr Mirza said.

Dr Mirza also thanked the parents and caregivers in welcoming vaccinators to their houses. He emphasised that without the continued support of parents, a polio-free Pakistan cannot be achieved. 

In the meeting, it was revealed that 265,000 frontline workers had vaccinated close 43.9 million children under the age of five (of a targeted 39.6 million children) during the five days the campaign was active. 

In core reservoirs of Karachi, Peshawar, Khyber, Quetta, Pishin and Killa Abdullah, catch-up immunization activities were extended for a day to cover children who were missed during door-to-door vaccination.

Originally published in The News